Walk This World
by Toxic Picnic
Summary: AU. Crossover. Davis is pulled into the Tamer's World. Now besides having to find his way home, he has to help save theirs! Pro-Davis. Hints of one sided Daikari later.
1. Displacement

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon. Period. End of Story. Contract Terminated.  
  
Walk This World By: Toxic Picnic Ch.1 Displaced Davis Motomiya waltzed down the street exuberantly. Demiveemon was cradled in his arms after a hard day's work of cleaning up the Digital World. That day was extremely special, because Veemon had finally Digivolved into his champion form, Exveemon. He managed to defeat Tortomon and cleaning up the mess left by Ken went smoother than ever. Things couldn't get much better.  
  
Just as he finished congratulating himself again, he noticed a bright flash from around the corner. Curious as he always was, Davis had a peek. A small neon blue orb was floating in mid air about five feet away. Davis's instincts told him not to touch a strange ball of energy hovering in mid air, but he ignored them and walked up to it. Cautiously, he poked it. His finger sunk into the orb just fine but it wouldn't come back out, like it was stuck. Suddenly, the orb expanded into a giant portal and pulled Davis in. He tried to grab onto something and his hand his hand attached to a fire hydrant. He managed to hold on and pull himself just a little bit, but the portal pulled harder and his goggles were pulled off of his head. Davis instinctively reached back to grab them but his hand slipped which scratched his hand and some blood trickled from his hand. His goggles slipped from his hand. He tried to grab them with the other. He didn't know why but it felt like they would protect him. However he only managed to hit them with his cut. The gate snapped shut closing his goggles back in his world. Davis fell down and down. Blackness covering all of his senses.  
  
"Is he dead?"  
  
"No, he's still breathing."  
  
"Hey guys, look over here."  
  
"Is that Demiveemon?"  
  
"Looks like it. I wonder how either of them got here." After hearing voices on all sides of him Davis groaned. The people stopped talking, and Davis could hear footsteps coming towards him.  
  
"Hello, are you okay?" Asked a voice. Davis opened his eyes. Staring back was a kid with light brown hairs like Tai's, but in a different style. There were, however goggles strapped on his head.  
  
"Tai?" Davis asked weekly. The boy looked shocked, but smiled and said "No, my name's Takato."  
  
"Save the introductory for later." Warned a boy a few feet away with dark hair.  
  
"We've got to get out of here, fast. The military's going to be here soon, and they'll have a lot of questions on hand."  
  
The boy called Takato helped him up and led him to a car. There was a girl with orangish-brown hair that was tied back already in it, a girl with short brown hair, and a man with dark hair like the boy. At once the girl with the orangish hair turned towards him and said to Takato "Who's this?" The dark haired kid and Takato had gotten in the car and shut the doors. At once the engine started up and they drove away.  
  
Davis looked at the people around him, who were looking at him like they recognized him. He looked at Takato and muttered, "Thanks." The brown haired boy smiled and replied, "No problem. I'm Takato Matsuki. These are my friends Henry, Rika, and Jeri. That's Henry's dad."  
  
Davis smiled at all of them and introduced himself, "I'm Daisuke Motomiya, but everyone calls me Davis. Do you guys know where I am?" All of them stared at him. Rika looked like she was going to say something sarcastic, but Henry cut her off and explained, "You're in Shinjuku. Are you sure that's your name? You hit your head pretty hard."  
  
"Yeah that's my nam- SHINJUKU! How did that happen? I was just in Odiaba!" Suddenly the memory came floating back to him. He remembered being pulled into the portal and blacking out.  
  
"Where's Demiveemon." He cried frantically, swiveling around and checking to find his blue friend. Henry had been holding him, and he handed the little Digimon to Davis. Demiveemon was still exhausted, but he opened one eye to look at his partner. Davis smiled at the little Digimon, who fell asleep again. Davis looked at the four children. They were exchanging bewildered looks. Finally, Jeri looked straight at him and inquired, "Can you tell us exactly what happened before you got here."  
  
Davis felt for some reason that he could trust these people, so he began to explain about how he was walking home when he saw the sphere of light and being pulled into it. He did manage to leave out the part where Veemon Digivolved into Exveemon. They again, exchanged bewildered glances.  
  
"Uh, you guys mind letting me in on what's going on here?" Right then the van stopped. Once again, they only asked a question. "What happened before that? Were you in the Digital World in the Real World.?" Asked Takato. Davis stuttered, then asked  
  
"How do you know about the Digital World?" Davis inquired, but Henry cut in  
  
"Just answer the question." "I was in the Digital World." They were still waiting. He continued on "Uh, Veemon Digivolved into Exveemon and fought Tortomon." They all nodded at each other.  
  
"Where are your goggles?" Jeri asked. "They were pulled off." Davis looked sad again. He cherished those goggles. They had been a present from Tai, a sign of leadership. Now they were gone.  
  
"Can we see your D3?" Rika asked. He took it out of his jacket and handed it to Henry, who took it and hit a button by accident.  
  
All of the sudden there was a bright flash of light. Energy was building up on the device. The next second it rocketed out of the window and out into the air then disappeared.  
  
"I definitely think that that verifies its authenticity." Jeri said in awe. Davis grabbed the little machine and freaked, "What happened to my D3?" He began to madly push the buttons on it. Nothing happened.  
  
"I'm really sorry." Henry looked distraught. Davis didn't answer, but held it out towards Demiveemon.  
  
"Demiveemon, Digivolve!" Davis cried. The in-training Digimon stood up, but no light emitted from the D3. Demiveemon stayed the way he was.  
  
"Davish, why can't I Digivolve?" Demiveemon inquired.  
  
"Smooth Henry; you broke it." Rika snapped. Henry blushed furiously, but Davis consoled him.  
  
"Don't worry about it. It must be pretty cheep to have broken like that." They all looked strangely at him, as though they somehow expected it.  
  
"Uh, I hate to bother you, but can I get a ride home?" Davis asked.  
  
"You can't get home." Takato spoke quietly, "For the simple reason that you don't live in this dimension!"  
  
"What?" Davis said incredulously  
  
"He's right. That little sphere of energy you told us about didn't teleport you across to Shinjuku. It took you to Shinjuku in another dimension!" Henry exclaimed. Davis looked disbelieving.  
  
"Want proof, I'll show you proof." Rika told him. They pulled up to her house a minute later. She grabbed Davis and pulled him out of the car. They charged into her fairly large house and into her living room. Rika pulled out a tape and shoved it into the VCR. Turning on the TV she hit the play button. A second later there was static on the screen, then an image. It was of a boy with a pair of shattered goggles on. He was sitting up, and he immediately said, "Uh, okay." A Veemon suddenly popped up next to him. "I can Digivolve if you open the egg, but you must have courage to do it." He said.  
  
"It's worth a try." Tai advised. One wild second later Davis realized that it was him in the TV. "TAI!" Cried Agumon.  
  
"We've got to get out of here." Exclaimed T.K. Now Davis was saying in unison what was happening on the screen.  
  
"Kari?" Gatomon sounded worried.  
  
"I can't move my ankle." She sounded panicky.  
  
"We're sitting ducks here." Tai yelled. At that exact moment the Monochromon came leaping over the edge of a cliff. It lunged at Kari, who gasped.  
  
"Davis!" Cried Veemon.  
  
"Have courage." Shouted Tai.  
  
"Kari's in trouble." Davis in the TV got up.  
  
"You want courage? I'll show you courage. DIGI-ARMOR, ENERGIZE!" He shouted.  
  
Davis (the one in the living room) had seen enough.  
  
"I won't believe it it's not true. It can't be true!" He moaned as a song consisting mostly of the phrase "Digimon, Digital Monsters, Digimon are the Champions" sounded.  
  
"You'd better believe it. You're stuck here, and until we figure out how to get you back, you're going to have to deal with it." Rika snapped. "For someone with the Digi-egg of Courage, you seem like an easily scared person to me." Davis stopped moaning. He let go of his head, then looked up at Rika.  
  
"What is that supposed to mean?" He shot back.  
  
"It means exactly what it sounds like goggle brains." Rika snorted. Davis just sighed and looked at the floor. At that exact moment Rika's mother came bursting through the door and hugged her daughter.  
  
"I thought I'd never see you again." She sobbed into Rika's shoulder. Rika was looking particularly guilty. As Davis looked on Rika's mother smothering her daughter with hugs Henry walked through the open door and dragged Davis into the hallway. Takato and Jeri were waiting there.  
  
"We know you must really be upset about being pulled into our dimension. Look my dad's willing to let you stay at our house until you find a way to get home." Henry explained and he shut the door to block out the wails coming from the other room.  
  
"Thank you.Why are you helping me? I don't know you." Davis looked suspicious.  
  
"Let's put it this way. I've never had a TV character in my house before." This caused Davis to become even sadder. He suddenly felt an arm on his shoulder, but didn't look up.  
  
"It will be OK." Takato told him. Davis simply didn't respond. It seemed there was more bugging him than just being in another world.  
  
Two hours later Davis was still dead depressed. He and Demiveemon had taken up to watching the TV show of his world. Henry walked into the room and noticed his sad look. This was the episode where they had to fight Agumon and it seemed that it was disturbing that Davis saw his weakness on TV. Henry picked up the remote and turned off the TV and VCR. Davis turned to look at him. For a minute no one spoke, and then Davis finally managed to say, "I see you must be a hardcore Digimon fan, what with the episodes all on tape and that Terriermon doll over there."  
  
"If you would have looked closer, then you might have seen that he isn't a doll." Henry retorted. Davis and Demiveemon focused on the green little creature. They suddenly noticed it was breathing and that occasionally it would blink.  
  
"You're real." Davis said in awe. Terriermon suddenly sat up and smiled. "That's right; I'm as real as you are. Then again, are you real?" Davis scowled, but after a minute brightened.  
  
"Wait a minute, if there are Digimon in this world, and Digimon and my world, maybe there's a connection somewhere between them. And if there's a Digimon here in your house that'd make you a." He trailed off and Henry nodded vigorously.  
  
"We're called Tamers, and if you want me to I'll tell you about our adventures so far if you want to." Davis agreed, so they sat down and Henry began.  
  
Half an hour later Henry finished his very in depth story about his history. "So that's it really. Oh, and tomorrow we'll be going to the Digital World to rescue Calumon." Davis was wrapped with attention. He lay down and thought about it for a little while. He thought about it long enough until Henry's snores could be heard.  
  
"Henry!" Davis hissed. "Henry wake up!"  
  
"Whu? Oh, Davis what's up?" Henry asked groggily.  
  
"I want to go with you guys tomorrow. Maybe I'll find something to get me home. And seeing how you guys helped me out here I can't possibly refuse to help you guys. Even if Veemon can't Digivolve there must be something we can do." Henry studied Davis for a moment before finally nodding.  
  
"OK, I don't think the others will have a problem. Welcome aboard Motomiya." With that he dropped off to sleep again. Davis gladly joined him.  
  
The next day Davis got up and went to the window. He didn't remember that he was in another dimension in which he only existed on a TV show.Until he looked out the window. A groan followed this just as Henry walked into the room.  
  
"I hoped it was all a dream." He groaned again.  
  
"I got news for ya it's not, so deal with it." The other retorted.  
  
"It makes me feel like it never happened." Davis looked at the floor. Henry put his hand on Davis's shoulder who looked up.  
  
"It will be OK." Something in the way Henry said it made Davis's morale lift. Half an hour later Henry was at school. Davis had to stay at his house with Terriermon who was an interesting Digimon, and Veemon who had Digivolved over night. In other words Terriermon never shut up, ever. But it wasn't boring like Davis's science teacher.  
  
"Hey, I got an idea, let's go visit Guilmon. He lives in the park." Terriermon cried.  
  
"What about Henry? Wouldn't he be mad?" Davis asked as he recalled who Guilmon was. That was Takato's partner.  
  
"Nah, just leave a note," Terriermon replied.  
  
Five minutes later Davis, Veemon, and Terriermon arrived at the Shinjuku Park. They walked up a set up steps and to the top of the hill. There was a little cage like thing right in front of them. Terriermon walked inside followed by a quizzical Davis and Veemon. It looked like a Digging Team had gone on overdrive for several days. There were mounds of dirt the size of boulders surrounding a massive hole in the middle of the small structure.  
  
"Guilmon." Terriermon called. There was a snuffling and suddenly a big red head popped out of the hole.  
  
"Hi Terriermon. Oh, you brought friends!" Guilmon hoisted himself out of the pit and walked over to Davis and Veemon.  
  
"Hi, I'm Guilmon. Who are you?" Guilmon was bigger than an Agumon would be, with a long tail and big claws. His teeth looked sharp, but this one seemed to be quite harmless.  
  
"I'm Davis and this is Veemon." Davis introduced them.  
  
"Nice to meet ya!" Veemon agreed. Guilmon sniffed Veemon and then suddenly jumped up and cried out, "LET'S PLAY!!!"  
  
"Yeah!" Terriermon agreed.  
  
"OK." Said Veemon. All three charged out and commenced a game of Tag. Davis watched in amusement for a while, and then decided to join in. If he had to wait for Henry, he may as well entertain himself while doing it.  
  
Two hours later Henry arrived to find Davis and the three Digimon having a lot of fun. Davis's depression seemed to have worn off. He was now running away from a speeding Veemon who tackled him and yelped, "You're it!"  
  
"Hi everyone." Henry called. They all looked at him, even Terriermon who fell out of a tree two seconds later. They all walked over to him giving greetings.  
  
"So, what's up?" Davis asked.  
  
"I'm going to get Takato and the others at their school, then we'll meet the others here." Henry explained. Davis frowned however.  
  
"Why here? Aren't we going to the Digital World?" He inquired.  
  
"Yes, that is the portal to the Digital World." Henry explained again. "And we're not sure how long we'll be there so we're packing a lot of food." Davis nodded. He privately felt that going to the Digital World was a lot easier in his world. They walked to Takato's school. It was easy because both Terriermon and Henry knew the way. Guilmon had to stay behind because he was too conspicuous. When they got there they saw Takato and Jeri walking out accompanied by two people Davis didn't know. When they reached the others Takato introduced Davis to the other two.  
  
"This is Kazu and Kenta. Kazu, Kenta, this is Davis Motomiya." They both blinked for a second before the one called Kazu laughed.  
  
"Oh ha ha. Very funny."  
  
"Yeah, you think you can trick us like." Kenta trailed off because Veemon suddenly hopped up on Davis's shoulder.  
  
"This is a joke right?" Kazu asked. Davis and Veemon both shook their heads.  
  
"But you guys are only in the TV show, right?" They shook their heads again. Kazu and Kenta looked at each other.  
  
"You know what this means?" Kazu asked.  
  
"Yeah, it means that we can meet all the others!" They suddenly began darting around looking for the other Digidestined. Takato grabbed the two and shook them.  
  
"Davis was pulled into our world by accident. He's trying to get home. Please don't mention the TV show anymore, OK?" They nodded.  
  
Everyone got to the park. Someone called Mrs. Azazi had flipped out saying that they were only kids and they couldn't handle the experience. Davis had disagreed. He'd been to the Digital World plenty of times. He had saved tons of Digimon. So why couldn't they handle this? At that moment Rika showed up. Her Digimon partner who Davis was introduced to was a tall humanoid fox with a long bushy tail. She was called Renamon. Jeri's partner was Leomon. Davis hadn't noticed him because he was in the back of the minivan they were all in and there wasn't time to introduce him. Kenta and Kazu had no partners but insisted that there was no better place to find one than in the Digital World. Takato had a flag with all of their faces drawn on it and the words DIGIMON TAMERS. He had been kind enough to draw Davis and Veemon on it. Everyone prepared to go, but before they could someone unexpected showed up.  
  
"Oh my, what a company." Takato and the others spun around to face the voice. There was a tall blonde adult standing in front of them.  
  
"What do you want?" Takato shouted. "I don't want anything except to give you something." He threw a small black device to Takato.  
  
"That's a Digital Communicator. It will let you contact me here in the Real World." He pulled off a pair of dark sunglasses and smiled.  
  
"Go in there and show them how it's done." He winked and Takato grinned.  
  
The Tamers plus Davis climbed down the tunnel to get to the Digiport.  
  
"Who was that?" Asked Davis.  
  
"That's Yamaki." Stated Rika who seemed to know that Davis knew their history. Yamaki, that was the Juggernaut guy. He tried to delete all the Digimon. About a minute later they reached the portal. It was large and it looked like a bunch of wires and blocks. Guilmon turned towards the others.  
  
"Ready?" He asked. Everyone checked their bags to see if they had everything. Since they did. Everyone leapt into the portal all at once heading blindly into the Digital World in an attempt to find Calumon. Their one hope.  
  
Back in Davis's home world things weren't going to well for Tai Kamiya. Davis was missing. No one not even his own family could find him. But Tai did find something. At that exact moment Kari walked into the house. She hung her coat up and looked at Tai.  
  
"Any news on Davis yet?" She asked. Tai just looked at her. Kari smiled and tried to comfort her brother.  
  
"Come one Tai. He's probably run away for some reason. It's probably nothing." Tai didn't answer, but slipped his hand into his pants pocket. Slowly, he drew out something. When Kari saw it she gasped and clutched her chest.  
  
"Bu- but he'd never. He wouldn't." She trailed off. Tai looked down into his hand. Resting in them was a pair of goggles with one lens shattered, stained in blood. 


	2. Enter the Veedramon

Walk This World  
  
By Toxic Picnic  
  
Chapter 2: Enter the Veedramon.  
  
Author's Notes: "Speaking" 'Thinking' (Author Note). Some people may object to this chapter because of the fact that Veemon doesn't digivolve into Exveemon. But, enjoy it none the less.  
  
They were falling. Plunging through several atmospheres in seconds the Tamers plus Davis and Veemon rocketed at the ground at a remarkable rate. A few seconds later they smashed into rock forming large craters. Davis felt a throbbing sensation but nothing really serious. He took a moment to collect himself. He remembered going into the portal from the Real World into the Digital World and passing through a digital field. It was hard to see in it and in the end he had to hold onto Takato's arm to navigate his way through. Renamon told them that up or down was all according to their perspective. After that Jeri said "I think down is that way," As she pointed below them. Renamon responded with an "Oh dear" as they flew through fields of data and into the Digital World at large. Guilmon had lost his backpack full of bread in the fall.  
  
Davis finally got up from his hole. It was hard to climb out since it was about six feet deep. Once he did manage to finally get out he immediately began to take in his surroundings. They had landed in a rocky field full of small plateaus. The sky was a clear blue with a large sun-like object in the distance. It took a minute for Davis to register that it was blue-green and there were data streams spiraling around it. There were also pink beams connected to the object that were running along the ground.  
  
'Did we fall from all the way from up there?' Davis wondered.  
  
The Team climbed out of their holes and onto the ground. The flat span of rocks with an occasional plateau extended for as far as they could see. Takato planted his flag in the ground. The expertly done artwork fluttered casually in the breeze. There was a strange silence as Davis stared across the Digiworld. It was much different than his. The one in the world he lived in was so beautiful and lush. Here everything was just so.barren.  
  
"So, where do we start?" Henry asked. He knew that none of them had that answer, but he asked it none the less.  
  
"Here, I guess." Jeri shrugged. "It's up to us to find Calumon, so we'd better find him quickly. Who knows what the Devas are doing right now?" There was an awkward silence punctuated by Kazu clearing his throat loudly. Everyone looked at Kazu and Kenta. Kenta was holding the flag with a smug expression and Kazu had a digital camera in his hands.  
  
"Here we are in the Digital World. Time for a photo shoot!" Kazu shouted. Before he knew what was happening Davis found himself having a picture taken from every possible angle. There were group pictures. Pictures of just the girls, pictures of just the guys, pictures of just the Digimon, and one very interesting one of Veemon on Davis's head, Terriermon on Henry's and Guilmon attempting to stand on Takato's head(all that was visible was Guilmon's huge red tail and one of Takato's flailing arms). When the photo shoot ended everyone had a good laugh. It had actually been the first time they laughed with true mirth in a long time. Something caught Davis's eyes. A large pink data stream zoomed past them. It was only about one hundred yards away.  
  
"Oh man. My camera's messed up." Kenta sounded frustrated. Davis looked and saw Kazu, Kenta, and Henry staring into the digital camera.  
  
"Hmm, these pictures are pixilated." Henry sounded completely interested.  
  
"Pixi-what?" Kazu asked.  
  
"Fuzzy Kazu, fuzzy." Henry looked up in time to hear Takato give a sigh.  
  
"This digital communicator isn't working either."  
  
"These data streams must be interfering with anything that's digital. We'll have to move away from them to send a clear message." Henry hypothesized. "What about your Digivices?" Davis arched an eyebrow.  
  
"I doubt they'll be malfunctioning too, because they were made for this kind of stuff." He responded. Their conversation was cut short by Rika, who shouted to them, "Guys, there's some kind of structure way a way's off." She was on top of the nearest plateau, pointing south. Everyone, with the help of their Digimon, climbed to the top of the rock landform. In the distance there were tall satellite-like structures that pointed every which way. It was like a city.  
  
"That's a long way off." Takato muttered.  
  
"Yeah, but it's not like we have anywhere else to go. There may be people there and we could get some information from them." Jeri responded.  
  
Rika nodded. "I think we should go." The rest were all for it, so everyone set off in the direction of the towers.  
  
An hour later they were still walking. Kazu and Kenta were complaining that they had never walked so far, and they had enough sand in their shoes to start their own private beach. Davis privately felt that it wasn't all that much of a walk. Back in his home world he spent a lot of his time working out. This was a pretty easy walk for him. Speaking of his home world, a sudden though struck him. Davis sped up to Takato, who was in the front. "Hey Takato, can I ask you something?" The other Digidestined smiled.  
  
"Sure, go ahead."  
  
"Well, I was thinking about my home world, and I was wondering what people thought about, well.um me and uh.me?" Davis put on a big fake smile. Takato looked puzzled.  
  
"I don't understand the question." Takato gave Davis a piercing look. Davis took a deep breath and asked, "I was wondering about what people thought about me. Like am I one of those liked people from Digimon." Takato looked away as he walked.  
  
"Um, well sorta, um."  
  
"No huh?"  
  
"Yeah. You're not."  
  
Davis sighed lightly. "What do people prefer, T.K. with Kari or me with Kari." "Uh, T.K." Davis could tell that this was like pulling teeth from the other, but he had to know.  
  
"Does anyone support me and her?"  
  
"I won't lie to you Davis, Daikari the pairing of you and Kari is very much in the minority. So is writing Pro-you. People either write Takari, T.K. and Kari, Davis bashing, or both. However there are some very good Pro- Davis and Daikari writers out there." Davis's sprits were lifted by that. "Who?"  
  
"Almost everyone who writes Daikari is very skilled, and there's even a Daikari Writers Union. If I ever get the chance I'll show you." Davis smiled slightly.  
  
"Now it's my turn to ask you something." Takato said and Davis nodded.  
  
"This has been bugging me ever since we found you. Where are your goggles?" Davis frowned.  
  
"They were pulled off when I was coming to this world." Takato nodded, and neither said anything for a while. They continued walking in silence until they came upon a bunch of land masses.  
  
"Let's take a break here." Renamon suggested as Kazu and Kenta flopped face down on the sand.  
  
"These rock structures look awfully familiar." Jeri noticed. Realization hit her two seconds later.  
  
"Oh guys, don't you get it? This is what we were looking at. This is the city!" Everyone groaned and Rika cried out. "No way, I was sure it was a city."  
  
"We all thought so too Rika." Henry tried to sooth her.  
  
"Yeah, but now we wasted all this time because of me. I hate that." She sounded like she demanded perfection from herself.  
  
"It was an easy mistake. Besides, something good might come out of it." Henry again tried to console her. She didn't say anything.  
  
At that exact moment Jeri shouted, "Look over there." There were large pink balls moving towards them. They kind of looked like pink digital tumbleweeds except they were moving in a pack directly away from the pillars of rock. Kazu and Kenta had gotten up. And they were shaking with fright. Without warning they got up and began to spring as fast as they could away from the pink balls. Renamon extended her arms and grabbed the back of their collars.  
  
"Relax you two, it's just old data. Completely harmless." They weren't convinced and kept trying to run in mid-air. The pink balls of energy passed right under them convincing the two that they weren't going to be eaten alive by them.  
  
"They must be sensing something." Leomon noted.  
  
"Look, beyond the rock pillars." Renamon pointed. The satellite-like structures were set in rows, and row after row were suddenly turning dark. In an instant a wave of darkness passed over them. Everything was like night.  
  
"Is it.night time?" Takato asked.  
  
"That must be the way it is here. No sunset, just night." Henry reasoned. Davis glanced up and suddenly felt his stomach drop out. On top of one of the pillars was a tall flaming Digimon. Davis recognized it instantly as Meremon. Meremon raised one of his hands high. A ball of flame appeared on his palm.  
  
'He's going to attack!' Davis thought  
  
"Look out!" He shouted.  
  
"Magma Blast!" Meremon shouted.  
  
The fireball rose up and split into several others they all rained down where the Digidestined had been. If it wasn't for Davis's warning they wouldn't have dodged out of the way in time. Jeri raised her Digivice and a circular window appeared above it. There was a picture of Meremon and some paragraphs giving data on him.  
  
"Meremon, a champion Digimon. His attacks are Magma Blast and Fireball." Meremon leapt down from his perch firing his attacks as he went. One of the fireballs was headed straight at Jeri. Leomon simply leapt in front of the attack and knocked it aside.  
  
"Fist of the Beast King!" He roared sending a large flaming lion head directly at Meremon. It hit him squarely in the chest sending him reeling into the ground, making a crater on impact.  
  
"Ugh, finish me off and take my data you foul beasts! You've finally beat me!" Meremon shouted.  
  
"Hold on, we're not here to take your data." Takato shouted to Meremon. Meremon blinked his huge black eyes and stared at them.  
  
"You're not?" The party shook their heads.  
  
"Oh thank you thank you!" Meremon cried in joy. Leomon helped him up. Meremon smiled at being spared, but then scowled at the humans.  
  
"What kind of Digimon are you anyway?" he asked.  
  
"We're not Digimon, we're humans." Rika corrected him.  
  
"Humans, you mean from the real world?" Meremon sounded excited.  
  
"The one and only." Kazu said carelessly causing Davis to scowl furiously. Kazu backed down when he corrected himself.  
  
"Well, no one really knows how many worlds there are out there, right?"  
  
"We're looking for two Digimon. They look like this." Takato rummaged around in his backpack and pulled out two drawings. One looked like a monkey with savage fang-like teeth and the other was a cute little something. The monkey was labeled Makuramon and the other was called Calumon.  
  
'So that's what Calumon looks like. I wondered.' Thought Davis.  
  
"Let me see here. I'm very traveled in this part of the world." Meremon examined the pictures closely.  
  
"I'm sorry, but I don't recognize either of them." He said. Takato put the pictures back in his backpack. "You know I've always wanted to grow strong enough to travel to the real world. I always thought it was a myth until I saw it with my own eyes. But now I long for the day in which I grow powerful enough to go there." His eyes were misted with wonder.  
  
After their talk with Meremon the Tamers laid down to sleep. Davis found he was unable to stay awake. He had stayed in the Digital World overnight before when he was fighting Ken, but never like this. In his Digital World everything seemed to have a certain order to it. It was a bit unruly at times especially when some maniac was trying to control everything. This place was completely unpredictable however. Aside from its strangeness, there seemed to be some kind of cloud of darkness hanging over the world. Some evil that stared out from the darkness. Davis looked up and saw a shooting star flick across the sky.  
  
"You couldn't sleep either?" Takato's head popped into Davis' line of sight.  
  
"Nah. This place really creeps me out. Like something's watching me." Davis replied.  
  
"I know. There's something not right here. This place is so barren it's just scary."  
  
Henry smiled from the other side of Takato. "Come on guys. We've just gotten here. You can't judge it yet."  
  
"Maybe," Davis said "but I still have this feeling. Something's going to happen." At that moment there was a strange sound in the distance. It sounded like a lot of thunder.  
  
"What is that?" Rika asked suddenly. It seemed she was awake too. Suddenly Renamon and Leomon were awake too. Henry whipped out his D-Power and checked his Digimon Analyzer.  
  
"Jagamon. Ultimate level Digimon that travel in herds." He reported. Renamon analyzed the situation and noticed that the whole herd was coming right towards them. "Let's get to higher ground." She suggested.  
  
Henry began to wake up Terriermon (good luck) as did Takato with Guilmon; Leomon with Jeri and Davis woke Kazu and Kenta. The herd moved even closer, it was going to be on top of them in a few minutes.  
  
"Hurry up!" Leomon shouted from the top of a rock structure. Davis who was the last one on the ground hoisted Veemon up to Henry who took him up to the top. Davis began to climb the structure just as the stampede passed under him. He sighed in relief at the exact moment a Jagamon hit the rock causing Davis to be dislodged from it. He was about to plunge to his death when Takato reached down and grabbed his hand. Too close.  
  
"Magma Blast." Meremon laughed insanely firing his attack into the herd. A small attachment broke off and crushed him scattering his data everywhere.  
  
The Tamers had to spend the night on top of the rock. They had no idea where the Jagamon were and apparently they were very dangerous. Daylight wasn't that far away however. Just as quickly as day turned to night, night turned to day. They all climbed off the rock into the same rock field but with little plants that had not been there the day before. No one paid attention to them however because they had something else to do. Piling stones while Takato drew a picture they showed remembrance to Meremon. The picture had Meremon on it and they stuck it to the pile of rocks.  
  
"Good bye.friend." Takato muttered.  
  
"Uh huh." Everyone agreed.  
  
The only two people who had not paid tribute to Meremon were Kazu and Kenta. They had grabbed one of the plants and pulled hoping to find something eatable. Instead what was found was one of the Jagamon.  
  
"Hey, quit it." It squeaked. It resembled a potato with a tail, ears, legs, and a face. For an Ultimate level Digimon it sure didn't seem very fierce.  
  
"Hey, Jagamon!" Rika had gotten her temper back. She marched up to the little creature, which shrunk away. "You nearly killed us back there! And you DID kill Meremon. Explain yourselves."  
  
"I'm sorry, we didn't mean to." It still looked frightened.  
  
"Rika, I think Meremon may have been invading their territory." Henry tried to calm her down. Takato lightly pushed her out of the way and showed the Jagamon a picture of Calumon.  
  
"Have you ever seen this guy?" He asked and it shook its head. "OK, then how about him." Takato showed a picture of Makuramon.  
  
"AHHHH." Screamed Jagamon. Little plants that were disappearing only to be replaced by more Jagamon, which all began screaming.  
  
"OK, so you have seen Makuramon?" They all nodded.  
  
"Where?" Henry asked intently. All of them pointed and squeaked, "Over there."  
  
"Thanks." Snorted Rika.  
  
The Tamers set off in that direction right after the Jagamon had reburied themselves. They hadn't gone far however when a data stream detached itself from the group far away.  
  
"Look at that." Stated Davis. Everyone looked at the rouge stream.  
  
"What would happen if one of those hit us?" Asked Kenta.  
  
"Those streams transfer huge amounts of data from one place to wherever the user specifies." Renamon explained.  
  
"If one of those hit us, who knows where we'd end up?" Leomon clarified. As if on a cue the data stream suddenly rushed towards them.  
  
"I think we should move." Jeri said.  
  
"Forget that, RUN!" Terriermon shouted. And so they did. Everyone started running in a diagonal path away from the streams path. Davis turned at the same moment Rika did to see how far away the giant pink stream was to find Kazu and Kenta were running straight.  
  
'It's going to hit them!' Davis thought.  
  
"I'll get them. Let's go Veemon!" Davis said to Rika and turned his direction straight at them. When they reached them Davis grabbed the two collars he continued running hoping to come out on the other side of the data stream before it hit them. But it was already too late. Hurling them into the air the pink stream raced through them. Everything around them was pink energy until the hit the ground with a hard thud. Davis got up; everything seemed to be in tact. Both Kazu and Kenta had come along with him. He waited until both of the others had got up before beginning to chew them out.  
  
"What the hell's wrong with you? What were you doing? Did it ever occur to you that it would be better to run in a direction that got you away from the Data Stream? But no, you had to do the stupidest thing possible at the moment." Both recoiled at the vehemence of his words.  
  
"It's not like we meant to or anything. It just sort of happened." Kenta looked at the ground.  
  
"Yeah, so get off our backs." Kazu agreed.  
  
"Maybe if you two would've been paying more attention you would have seen us and come along!" Veemon hissed angrily.  
  
"Well-" Kazu began but never finished. His face suddenly went stark white, shining with fear. He backed up and fell onto the ground, his eyes fixed directly on something behind Davis.  
  
Davis whirled around. They were in a huge rut in the ground. At one end it was extremely deep at the other end was a slope leading to upper ground. Staring into his tiny eye was one, huge red eye. There was an orange outlining on its iris. The eye was connected to a huge black figure which Davis had no trouble recognizing.  
  
"It's Darktyrannomon." Davis gasped. The huge black Digimon got up with a hungry glint now in its eyes. It roared a horrible roar into the day.  
  
"RUN!" Shouted Veemon. Without thinking Davis grabbed both Kazu and Kenta and began running as fast as possible. The huge predator roared in amusement. The only way out of the rut was blocked off by Darktyrannomon. Davis quickly glanced around and saw a lower cliff that looked easier to climb.  
  
"Come on!" He shouted. He knew all the others were following him even if he didn't dare look back to check. The thundering stomps of their enemy were enough motivation for anyone to listen. Davis reached the cliff and grabbed it. He pulled himself up and then helped the other two humans up. When he held out his hand to Veemon, his Digimon partner didn't take it.  
  
"I'll hold him off." He said.  
  
"You can't be serious, he'll squash you like a bug." Davis protested. Darktyrannomon was practically breathing down their necks.  
  
"I'll get out once you've climbed out, now go." Before Davis could argue anymore Veemon was running and shouting "Hey you big stupid baboon, why don't ya try to catch me." Darktyrannomon roared agitatedly. He changed his direction to follow Veemon. Davis helped Kazu and Kenta on top of ground and was just about to climb above the cliff himself when he heard Veemon yell. Davis's head swiveled to see a blast of fire launch from Darktyrannomon's mouth and crash into Veemon. The smaller Digimon was sent flying, landing face first a few yards away from Davis.  
  
"NO!" Cried Davis who slid down the cliff and sprinted towards Veemon. He picked up his fallen comrade and cradled him in his arms.  
  
"Veemon, speak to me." Davis spoke to his partner. Veemon was badly burned but he manage to crack open an eye.  
  
"I tried." He whispered. Darktyrannomon was closing in a look of triumph on his face.  
  
"I'm sorry Veemon." Davis said back barely restraining tears. "I'm sorry you can't Digivolve. I'm sorry I couldn't help you. I just wish I could save you."  
  
No one is truly sure of what happened then. If Darktyrannomon was still around he could tell us. Kazu and Kenta swore they saw what happened but they could scarcely believe it. They said some big white thing had been right behind Davis, and when he had wished to save Veemon it suddenly shone brightly and disappeared. Davis looked up and the shining to see a Digivice fall onto Veemon's stomach. "A.D-Power?" It was. It was like the color of a deep sapphire, cerulean blue but shiny and clear. Suddenly it started shrieking and beeping loudly. Light shot out of it and engulfed Veemon whose eyes suddenly snapped open.  
  
"Veemon Digivolve to.!" The light grew huge, a little bit taller than Darktyrannomon who jumped back in shock. After a moment the light suddenly disappeared. Standing there was a huge blue dragon. Basically it was a bigger version of Veemon, a lot bigger. It wasn't light blue like ExVeemon, but deep blue like the color of the sky at dusk. It was wingless but it made up for that with its huge muscles. Two long horns were protruding from the back of its triangular head and one at its nose.  
  
"VEEDRAMON!" Veedramon bared his teeth menacingly at Darktyrannomon. The other looked somewhat intimidated but shook that off and charged. Veedramon was ready and he thrust his fist forward to counter. The blow connected squarely with the other's head sending him reeling back. As Darktyrannomon began to regain himself, Veedramon charged and crashed the other with his head. Darktyrannomon was sent flying and slammed into the cliff. Veedramon stood back to defend Davis.  
  
"Davis, go with Kazu and Kenta. I'll deal with him." Veedramon snarled. Davis, who was temporarily stunned, came to life.  
  
"Right." He said and dashed off. Darktyrannomon was charging up his attack. Fire licked his muzzle right before he launched the fireball at Veedramon. Veedramon had seen what was happening and swung his tail around. The fireball was sent straight back and crashed into Darktyrannomon's chest.  
  
Darktyrannomon was just about done. He was breathing hard. Veedramon was going to let him go when the other suddenly sent volleys of fireballs into the air. Fear gripped Veedramon.  
  
'He might hit Davis!' Veedramon thought as he resolved what to do. He sighed inwardly.  
  
'This has to end." Veedramon began to gather energy around him. Blue fire began to cover his form like a big flame engulfing him. The energy became more concentrated as it focused itself towards his mouth.  
  
"Vee Nova Blast!" Growled Veedramon before firing. A huge blue fireball rocketed towards Darktyrannomon. The only part that was red was a big V in the middle of the fireball. It smashed through Darktyrannomon's chest and came out the other side. The Dark version of Tryannomon exploded into red data. It didn't disappear, but it turned blue and went to float down into Veedramon, whose muscles expanded and strength increased. His eyes had been closed when he absorbed the data, but then they snapped open as he roared triumphantly.  
  
An Unknown Location  
  
The Master stared at the map of Digital World VII. His control was growing by the minute. Soon He would have dominance over the southern portion of the Digital World. His smile turned to a frown as He saw one of the troop markers turn off.  
  
"Bring up a monitor in that sector." He commanded. The lieutenant did so, not daring to question the Master. A picture of a huge blue Digimon and three humans popped up. The Master frowned and one of the humans. He looked.different somehow.  
  
"Bring up a personal scan on that one with the brown hair." The Master commanded.  
  
"Check provides little background. It only says he's from the world Terra IV."  
  
"But the closest human world is Terra VII." The Master whispered to himself. His features suddenly hardened.  
  
"Get me Angix!" He roared a command. A few moments later the one called Angix came forth. All eyes in that dimly lit command room were fixed on him, even if they pretended to be at the work stations.  
  
"You called master?" The man said. He was a stooped figure with barely any hair and a rat-like face. There was certain nervousness about the way he glanced around the room. The Lord smiled cruelly as he said, "Angix, you have failed me." Angix looked shocked.  
  
"But, my Lord, how have I-" He was cut short.  
  
"Someone from another dimension has come through a phase warp. Yet there is something strange about him." The Master smiled even more cruelly.  
  
"Really my lord.what?" Mangix looked purely terrified by now.  
  
"Lieutenant, how long has that one been out of Terra IV?" The Master sneered.  
  
"Uh, scans show about twenty-nine hours." The young man said.  
  
"Twenty nine hours." He hissed. "And yet, this one hasn't developed Shift- Sickness. Do you know what that means?" Angix nodded gravely and stuttered, "H, he, he's o on one of f of y yu you!"  
  
"He has the power and you failed to recognize it. You know the punishment for failure."  
  
"Please, NO!" Angix barely got that out before he died. The Master whipped out a sword and cleaved Angix in two. The two haves fell to the ground wriggling burning to ash. Once the failures body had turned to the coarse, black powder The Master snorted. "Back to work all of you. The next failure gets his fate!" The Master had spoken! As his servants resumed their work with fear, The Master whispered to himself, "I'll get you, trespasser!"  
  
  
  
WOAH! Cliffhanger, again! So Davis was separated from the group and Veemon Digivolved to Veedramon. So, what's this power that Davis has, and what's Shift-Sickness? More importantly, who's this new villain? Is he even human? To find out, keep reading Walk This World. 


	3. Seperate Secrets

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or any related materials except the storyline. Mine. You no touch.  
  
Author Notes: I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed my story. This isn't possible without you. And I'm sorry for not updating in a LONG time. I get tied up you know. I'll try to speed up the next chapter.  
  
Walk This World  
  
By Toxic Picnic  
  
Ch. 3. Separate Secrets  
  
Takato scowled inwardly. After Davis, Veemon, Kenta, and Kazu had been pulled into the Data Stream the rest of the group had stopped. They had to decide what they would do, continue on to find Calumon or look for Davis.  
  
"We have to go after Davis. His D3 doesn't work and Kazu and Kenta don't have any Digimon Partners to help." Jeri argued.  
  
"He's been in worse situations and come out unscathed." Henry shot back.  
  
"Example?" Rika put in.  
  
"Blackwargreymon, Daemon, and Malomyotismon!"  
  
"He didn't fight any of them yet, remember."  
  
".Oh yeah. I forgot."  
  
"Guys, I think we should continue to search for Calumon. Davis isn't stupid. He knows if he just gets down and waits it out we'll eventually find him."  
  
"How can you say that Takato? This isn't some kind of game! This is the real deal! There are real predators out there and they won't hesitate to take out Davis and the rest." Rika yelled.  
  
"It would be cruel to leave someone undefended in the Digital World. They wouldn't last a week!" Leomon argued.  
  
Henry stood up. "All who want to go search for Kazu, Kenta, Davis, and Veemon raise your hand now." He told them. Everyone slowly raised their hands. Even Takato in a defeated sort of way.  
  
"Okay, it's settled. Let's go." Renamon said. And they set off, a new quarry in mind.  
"Davis what's wrong?" Grumbled the huge Veedramon.  
  
"Oh.Nothing." Davis lied in a distant voice. Veedramon stopped walking.  
  
"I know when something wrong, and something's wrong. So what's wrong?"  
  
"Uh, well." He stole a quick glance at Kazu and Kenta who looked intently at him.  
  
"It's just that when you fought DarkTyrannomon you weren't yourself. I mean you actually killed him. Then what. I'm just confused. I don't understand any of what's happening here." Davis explained.  
  
"I'm sorry Davis. It's just that I couldn't help it. If you were hurt because I didn't finish him off I couldn't live with myself." Veeedramon said.  
  
"Well what happened after that? Did you absorb his data or something?" Davis inquired.  
  
"Exactly!" Kenta explained. "See, in this world when a Digimon is deleted the one who deleted it has the power to absorb its data. Doing that doesn't change how the Digimon sees the world or anything like that, it just makes it stronger."  
  
"One last question. Why did you Digivolve to Veedramon. Why not Exveemon?" Veedramon shrugged. "I don't know. It just happened. Probably something to do with the type of Digivice used."  
  
"OK." Davis said as he looked up. "Wow, this is a great view from all the way up here. Thanks pal."  
  
"No problem." Veedramon told the figures on top of his head. At that moment there was a terrible laughter. Veedramon and the others looked over to see a humanoid Digimon staring at them. He had metal on his face and a metal chain wrapped around him. Blue fire surrounded him. Davis whipped out his D-Power and the Digimon scanner came up.  
  
"Skullmeremon. An ultimate level Digimon. His attack is Metal Fireball."  
  
"Your data is mine." Snarled the ultimate. Veedramon grabbed Kazu, Kenta, and Davis then set them down. He quickly charged up the Vee Nova Blast. Skullmeremon extended his hand and launched his attack.  
  
"Vee Nova Blast!"  
  
"Metal Fireball!"  
  
Both Digimon attacked at the same time. The metal fireball crashed through Veedramon's attack. It continued on to Veedramon who managed to put his arms in a blocking position. He was knocked back and splayed out on the ground. Skullmeremon walked over to Veedramon and stepped on his chest to pin him down. Once again he thrust his arm out and prepared to attack.  
  
"Desolation Claw!" Skullmeremon was smashed forward and fell on the other side of Veedramon. A gray blur suddenly streaked by landed on Skullmeremon's chest.  
  
"Desolation Claw!" The beast kept slashing at his chest. Soon Skullmeremon couldn't resist if he wanted to.  
  
"Cyberdramon! Stop!" A voice yelled. Davis swiveled to turn towards the voice. A tall boy with brown hair, and strange looking clothes was striding towards the beast called Cyberdramon. Cyberdramon didn't head though. He kept slashing and tearing ferociously in a frenzied attempt to kill Skullmeremon. The boy pulled out his D-Power with a sigh.  
  
"Cyberdramon, OBEY!" He pushed a button on the device and thrust it forward. A blue beam shot out and attached itself to a metal implant on Cyberdramon's arm. At once the Digimon stopped trying to destroy the fallen ultimate and began tugging on the beam. He seemed to be in pain. He roared a few times before backing off and jumping off of Skullmeremon.  
  
Cyberdramon was surprisingly small for an ultimate. Most ultimates that Davis saw were big and intimidating. This one definitely hit the intimidating part with his huge teeth and vicious claws, but was far from big. Sure, compared to Davis he was about twice his height, but Skullmeremon was a medium sized ultimate and he was triple the size of Cyberdramon. What he lacked in size though he made up for in strength. Skullmeremon managed to flip his body over. He began to crawl away, which caused Cyberdramon to growl angrily. He knew better though than to disobey his master though.  
  
When the newcomer was sure that Cyberdramon wasn't going to go attack Skullmeremon he turned to the group. Veedramon had reverted back to Veemon, who looked pretty beat up.  
  
"Hi, you looked like you were in real trouble back there." The boy said with an air of great confidence. Kazu and Kenta looked like they were temporarily dumbstruck.  
  
"Are you.are you?" Kazu stuttered.  
  
"Am I, what?" The new person asked.  
  
"THE Great Ryo." Kenta followed up.  
  
"Well, I don't know abou-" Ryo started but never finished. Kazu and Kenta suddenly went into a rant about every Digimon Card Tournament he had won. Somewhere in the middle of it Davis jerked himself out his stupefied look and held out his hand to Ryo.  
  
"I'm Davis. Nice to meet your." Ryo had barely grabbed his hand and began to shake it when Davis' hand was slapped out of Ryo's grip.  
  
"I'm Kazu. It's great to meet you oh Great Ryo." Kazu barely got the chance to shake his hand when Kenta butted in and grabbed Ryo's hand.  
  
"I'm Kenta, can I have your autograph?" He yelped joyously.  
  
"Take it easy guys." Ryo scratched the back of his head. Skullmeremon was now completely concealed in the woods.  
  
"Say, why don't we head to a nearby camping spot. It's pretty isolated so we don't have to worry about being attacked. Then you can tell me all about you guys." Ryo suggested. It sounded like a pretty good idea so they all agreed to it and set off. The day, as suddenly as usual, changed to night at that exact moment.  
  
Skullmeremon dragged himself further into the forest, trying desperately to get away from that demon which had attacked him. His legs didn't work anymore after being shredded to pieces. They were scratched up and almost bursting into data. But Skullmeremon wouldn't dare give up. Not if he wanted to avoid punishment from The Master. His fear of The Master seemed to extend beyond death. He feared being punished more than being deleted. Skullmeremon's arms grew tired. He pulled himself to the base of a large tree and sat with his back against it. A Crowmon, a little black bird Digimon with multicolored head feathers, watched him with interest for a moment before continuing foraging for food. If he was going to get well again he would have to delete other Digimon to reenergize himself. Skullmeremon held his hand up near the Crowmon. He bent his hand in a flicking position just as Crowmon looked up. WHAMM! The Crowmon slammed into a nearby tree nearly deleting it. Skullmeremon was just about to finish him off when a high pitched screech resounded from nearby. What Skullmeremon saw made his stomach clench. The ultimate form of Crowmon, Raptordramon, was staring at him. Raptordramon were a lot more dangerous than Crowmon. They had orangish scaly skin, a metal breastplate like Metalgreymon, huge claws, and piercing red eyes. The way they fought with such viciousness it was scary. With blinding speed the Raptordramon charged and dug its claw toes into Skullmeremon's hand as he raised it. Skullmeremon yelled, grabbed the Raptordramon, and threw it. It fell back into the dark forest, its red eyes staring menacingly at him. Suddenly another pair of red eyes flared into life, and then another. Before he knew what was happening he was surrounded by Raptordramon. Skullmeremon was just able to scream before the whole clan regained their nesting ground by clashing in and deleting him in just a few seconds. The evil Digimon's scream was silenced by the dozens of triumphant roars everywhere. The clan leader picked up the dying Crowmon and held him out to Skullmeremon's data. The data turned blue and directed itself into Crowmon. There was a sudden flash of white light and Crowmon was replaced by his much bigger champion form, Ravendrimon. The clan roared in delight and was joined by a flock of Crowmon, Ravendrimon, and the new Ravendrimon.  
The blood curdling shriek of Raptordramon pierced the night. Davis looked back from the warm fire behind him to see if anything was there.  
  
"Don't worry about it." Ryo said. "There's nothing to be afraid of as long as Cyberdramon is here." He patted his partner who growled in a dignified sort of way. They had set up a fire right before Veemon dozed off to sleep. Kazu and Kenta had soon followed on his example and fell asleep. Davis had quietly told Ryo about his home world. The other sat pondering it for a long time before speaking.  
  
"Well it certainly is possible. I mean, if this world exists then it's definitely possible for another one completely different from this one to exist. Although it does seem weird that you're a TV character where I come from." Davis nodded.  
  
"But why am I here?" He asked. "Is there a purpose for me or am I just the victim of some random accident."  
  
"It seems likely that there's a reason," Ryo said thoughtfully "because dimensional travel seems too unlikely to be an accident." Davis had to agree with him. It seems extremely unlikely that he had slipped between dimensions by a fluke. He decided that such things could be thought about in the morning and slowly closed his eyes. He could still hear the crackle of the fire as he drifted off to sleep.  
  
Takato sat warming himself at a fire some distance away from Davis'. They had moved into a cooler part of the Digital World, plus the nights dropped the degrees by about 10 Celsius. Everyone else was sleeping peacefully, well almost everyone.  
  
"Can't sleep, eh Takato?" Takato started as Jeri's voice came from behind him. He swiveled around to see her smiling face.  
  
"Yeah." He replied while turning away.  
  
"What's on your mind?" She asked sweetly. Normally Takato wouldn't have said anything, but he had a soft spot for the girl.  
  
"Well, I'm worried about Davis. I mean he just showed up two days ago, and he's being thrown into the mix without any time to get ready for it. It's kinda scary." He explained nervously. Jeri nodded in agreement.  
  
"I know what you mean. I'd be afraid if this was happening to me. It's lucky that he has the Crest of Courage." Jeri smiled lightly.  
  
"But now's not the time for that. Now is the time for sleeping." She stated before bidding him goodnight. He replied with his own before laying down to rest, with the worries lessened on his mind.  
  
Davis awoke slowly. He had been having such a nice dream. He was back on his world, and everyone was glad to see him again. He was tempted to roll over and return to the dream-world, but the sun was shining in his eyes and he decided to get up.  
  
'No point in dwelling on false dreams.' He thought to himself. He stood up to see Veemon, Kazu, and Kenta still sleeping.  
  
Ryo and Cyberdramon were nowhere to be found. Davis decided to stretch and take a walk around. He strode around their campsite for a little bit before stopping at a rock.  
  
"Where are Ryo and Cyberdramon?" He muttered to himself. He glanced down at the boulder to see something that caught his eye. There was a hole in the ground near the boulder. It looked deep too, like some kind of underground cavern. Davis crouched down to examine the hole. Before he could react, or even move the ground beneath him crumbled falling into the chamber beneath him taking both him and the boulder. He fell for a second before landing hard on the stone. He looked up just in time to see the huge boulder land right above his head.  
  
'That was too close.' He thought. Davis stood up with some difficulty, he was sore from the fall. The first thing he noticed was the huge mural on the wall. There were some pictures and runes that obviously told some kind of prophecy. There wasn't anything else interesting about the place. Davis inspected the mural a little closer. He saw that the paint was fairly worn away, but still distinguishable. In fact, in one of the pictures he saw a person who looked remarkably like.himself? No it couldn't be. He must have still been a bit dazed from the fall. His thoughts were intruded upon by a big blue hand on his shoulder however. Davis jumped and whirled around. He stared at the figure for a moment before shutting his eyes and rubbing them. When he opened them he saw the same figure. Tall, with shining gold armor and blue scaly skin the Digimon said in a soft voice "Davis." Davis was completely stunned by what he was seeing. There was no way that he could be here. Davis' voice quivered as he addressed the incredible creature, "Magnamon?" 


	4. Lost and Found

Chapter 4  
  
Lost and Found  
  
Walk This World  
  
By Toxic Picnic  
  
Authors Notes: Hey everyone. It's been awhile, but I'm back. To explain a little bit, I've decided to make this entirely an alternate universe. None of the Digidestined/Tamers have ever entered each others worlds until now. For example, Ryo could never have sent an email during the Diaboromon incident, because he wasn't there. Anyway, sit back and enjoy chapter four of Walk this World.  
  
The Master stared as three lights flicked off indicating the death of more troops. Whatever this force was, it was becoming a nuisance.  
  
"Lieutenant! Bring up a split screen of the two locations we just lost troops," He barked.  
  
"Yes Master!" the young lieutenant responded immediately before doing what was requested. He began typing keys until the split screen came up. On one of the screens there were pictures of the Tamers. They were taking a break after the fight. On the other screen was a picture of a Cyberdramon absorbing data.  
  
"It's time we eliminated those nuisances. I want you to send a squad of Sewerdramon at the group. For the other, it seems that The Trespasser is with them. I want you to accompany a platoon of Dark Digimon to eliminate them. You may also take a Corrupted Monolith to pilot for yourself," The Master said.  
  
"Yes Sir!" the lieutenant responded before moving out.  
  
"And lieutenant!" The Master added, "Have this done for me and you'll be looking at a promotion."  
  
"Sir, yes Sir!" the lieutenant nodded and walked off, trying to conceal a smile.  
  
Magnamon's stood tall and mighty before Davis, who couldn't believe what he was seeing. Finally, Magnamon spoke.  
  
"Davis.," Magnamon said faintly, "Davis, it is time for you to put aside all else and fulfill your destiny." Davis found it within himself to speak.  
  
"But, but what are you talking about?" he asked.  
  
"This world is beset by a great evil. But this evil is different from any other. It is not from this world. It has come from a distant universe to take over this one. And I must tell you now, if you do not save this world, no one will," Magnamon explained.  
  
"What do you mean save this world? From who?" Davis inquired.  
  
"His name simonizes with ugliness and evil. It's," Magnamon spoke barely above a whisper, "Tyros. His evil is growing across this world every day. You must destroy him. But not only to save this world, but to return to your own. You have been gifted with a D-Power and allies to help you accomplish this mission. However, in the end, the power to destroy Tyros will come from you. No one else," He told a stunned Davis. Davis looked like he was just about to ask something when he was interrupted by something weird. Magnamon suddenly fell to his knees clutching his head. His image suddenly became static-like.  
  
"Magnamon, what's wrong?" Davis asked helplessly as Magnamon became more and more like a damaged television screen.  
  
"Davis, to achieve the first step of victory against Tyros, you must save Calumon from destruction," Magnamon just managed to say before his image entirely disappeared.  
  
"Magnamon?" Davis asked the air. Suddenly the place where Magnamon had been standing was replaced by another figure. He was tall, about twenty. His form was strong, with blond hair and gray eyes. His pupils gave Davis the impression of dark pits. There was a long sword hung at his side. He wore black full plate that was covered by a cloak of black. He looked all together evil. His image was TV like and flickery, so it was obviously a hologram.  
  
"Davis Motomiya, what do you plan to gain by fighting me?" the man asked as his face twisted into a nasty smile.  
  
"You, you must be Tyros! Where's Magnamon?" Davis yelled.  
  
"Yes, you may call me that. As for your pet, well it was my fault he disappeared. I have a conversation that I needed to hold with you immediately. By the way, he wasn't real, just an illusion created by the natural energies of this place to deliver a message to you personally," Tyros rifled off this information like it was nothing.  
  
"So. what do you want from me?" Davis snarled.  
  
"Well, it's exactly what I just asked. What do you plain to gain by fighting me?" the whole time he had an annoying air of confidence. Davis didn't answer, he just stared insolently.  
  
"I thought so. Why don't we join forces? I'll offer you a high rank in my army as a starting position," Tyros said in a much too charming voice.  
  
"I'll never join you!" Davis shouted.  
  
"Never? Well, never is a long time. Are you sure about that? You might want to think about your answer very closely," Tyros said while still smiling.  
  
"Like I said, never!" Davis repeated. Tyros sighed.  
  
"If you insist. You can't say I never tried. Goodbye young fool, I shall never see you again," Tyros spoke these last things very ominously. The picture of him suddenly disappeared. Davis, who was a bit shaken, was about to begin looking for a way out of the cavern when something caught his eye. A card was lying on the ground. It was green with a picture in the middle. The picture was of two parallel lines moving that suddenly bent up and crossed like an X. Davis examined it before pocketing it. Before he could even move he heard someone calling his name.  
  
"Davis? Davis where are you?" asked the voice. It was Ryo and Cyberdramon.  
  
"I'm down here!" Davis called. Ryo came over and found him below the ground.  
  
"How'd you get down there?" he asked.  
  
"The rock caved in and I fell down," Davis explained, "hey, could you get me out of here?"  
  
"Sure hold on," Ryo answered. He sent Cyberdramon to climb down and pull up Davis. He did that and pulled Davis up above the ground. Davis had to shield his eyes. Ryo looked at him dubiously.  
  
"Are you okay?" He asked.  
  
"Yeah.Yeah, I'm fine," he replied, not sounding fine at all.  
  
"Are you sure, you looked spooked," Ryo still looked concerned.  
  
"Yes, I'm fine. Where were you?" said Davis changing the subject. Ryo still looked worried, but replied, "Cyberdramon smelled something. It turned out to be a Dark Digimon," he explained.  
  
"Ok," Davis put on a false smile, "well, let's get back to the camp." Ryo looked surprised as Davis brushed past him and started back to where they had set up camp. He had a lot more on his mind.  
  
Guilmon and Terriermon lay down sweating.  
  
"Whew, that was a tough battle. Who would've thought that a Woodmon and a Monochromon could be so tough?" Terriermon commented.  
  
"I agree, I've never seen champions so strong," Renamon said.  
  
"You guys beat 'em though. In your rookie forms too," Takato said hopefully.  
  
"We had Leomon, who is a champion, and modify cards," Renamon continued.  
  
"Well, that's over for now," Henry assured them. No sooner had the words left his mouth when the Digimon suddenly clutched at their noses.  
  
"Ugh, what's that smell?" Guilmon cried.  
  
"It's awful!" yelled Leomon. The putrid smell reached the noses of the Tamers. It was like rotten fish with rotten eggs. Jeri pulled out her D- Power, and a Digimon came up on the screen.  
  
"Sewerdramon, Dragon-Rat type Digimon that swarm their opponents. Champion level, but rather weak," she said.  
  
About thirty Sewerdramon came into sight. They looked like three foot tall rats with longer necks and tiny wings coming out of their backs. Every inch of them was covered in filthy, black fur. They charged the Tamers as the Digimon leapt forward. As described in the Digimon Analyzer, the Sewerdramon were very weak. It only took one hit to knock them back away in a heap on the ground. In about five minutes they were all lying in a pile twenty feet away. Leomon kicked the last one up so it landed on top of the pile. The Digimon were just about to finish off the Sewerdramon as the one on top screeched. All the others began to join in. The tamers and Digimon were covering their ears as the Sewerdramon screeched. Suddenly the whole pile of them turned into yellow energy. The energy twisted and changed shape until it was the shape of the new Digimon. It looked like a bigger version of the Sewerdramon. It had brown fur instead of black, without wings. It still had a longer neck though, and its mouth dripped corrosive acid. Its long whip-like tail cracked the air menacing. It roared a much more evil roar than the Sewerdramon.  
  
The Master watched from the Control Room as the Sewerdramon Digivolved. "Ahh," he sighed, "this is why I love using Sewerdramon. If their combined strength can't take down the enemy, they just Digivolve to their much stronger version, Vermindramon.  
  
Vermindramon's red eyes stared evilly at Guilmon. Guilmon backed up from the huge creature. Jeri stared in fear as she read the information on Vermindramon. "Vermindramon, an ultimate level rat type. Its attacks are Acid Fang, Dragon Claw, and Whip Tail." The rest of the tamers pulled out Digivolve cards while Jeri got a Power card.  
  
"Digi-modify!" Takato, Henry, and Rika yelled, "Digivolution activate!"  
  
"Digi-modify!" Jeri cried, "Power activate!" The Guilmon, Renamon, and Terriermon Digivolved to their champion forms as Leomon gained a burst of energy. They charged the huge rat as they fired their attacks.  
  
"Pyro Blaster!"  
  
"Dragon Wheel!"  
  
"Gargo Lasers!"  
  
"Fist of the Beast King!"  
  
All four attacks soared at Vermindramon who still stared with evil eyes. Right as they were about to hit him he swiveled his body around slapping the attacks away. In the same motion his tail knocked the Digimon straight backwards onto the ground. The champions stood up again, much more cautious. Vermindramon swung back around to face the champions, and hissed a challenge. All four of them lunged to attack. As they charged forwards suddenly they all broke off and darted in different directions that surrounded Vermindramon. If a rat could smile, it would of. Instead it bared its teeth menacingly before lunging forward as well. One claw suddenly shot out for Gargomon. Gargomon luckily managed to dodge out of the way, however the ground in front of him splintered and sent him flying. Gargomon landed with a thud on the ground and skidded to a stop. Without warning Vermindramon was on him within a second. Vermindramon took a second to coat his teeth with acid before sinking them into Gargomon's back. Gargomon cried out as a sudden, excruciating pain coursed throughout his body, the acid working its way deep into his body. Vermindramon's head was suddenly knocked away as Growlmon smashed it with a punch. Gargomon reverted back to Terriermon as Henry rushed over to help. Vermindramon had moved away to attack the others, and was doing a good job of it.  
  
"Terriermon," Henry said as he stared at the Digimon, "please be alive." Terriermon managed to open one eye into a squinting position.  
  
"Henry, I can barely move," he whispered. Henry picked up Terriermon and looked up just in time to see a battered Leomon go flying into a rock. Vermindramon backed off to examine his foes for a moment.  
  
"Takato, we have to Matrix Digivolve," Growlmon said anxiously while getting up from one of Vermindramon's assaults. The Tamers minus Henry, who was too busy holding up Terriermon, rifled through their cards.  
  
"I don't have any!" Takato yelled.  
  
"Me neither," admitted Rika.  
  
"Dammit," swore Takato, "I thought that if we just believed in ourselves, we could get blue cards. What's going on?"  
  
"Dunno," said Rika.  
  
"Listen Takato, Rika, Jeri, Henry, you must get out of here. If Growlmon and Kayubimon can't Digivolve, then there's no way we can take on Vermindramon. We'll try to hold him here as long as we can, but you must hurry," Leomon told them as he got up painfully.  
  
"But Leomon," Rika began.  
  
"No. Listen to me. This creature is stronger than anything you've ever faced, even though I don't know what you've faced. Its power is immense. We might be able to hold him, but you must run!" Leomon sounded more desperate now. Henry, Jeri, and Rika all looked at Takato for a second. He was biting his lip and looking anxious. After a few seconds he gave his opinion.  
  
"He's right. We have to get out of here. Just look at that thing," he gestured to Vermindramon who Kayubimon just managed to teleport of the way from.  
  
"We're no match for him if they can't Digivolve. As much as I hate to admit it, we have to run," Takato said.  
  
"But, but," Rika took a moment to look at the paralyzed Terriermon to the wounded Leomon, and finally Kayubimon who was still fighting.  
  
"Oh all right!" she sighed.  
  
"Make for that forest, we'll stall Vermindramon as long as we can," said Leomon before again charging the beast.  
  
"Let's go!" yelled Jeri and they all took off, sprinting towards the forest. Vermindramon screeched and lunged toward them, but was suddenly tackled by the three remaining Digimon. Vermindramon shook them off and began whipping his tail all over the place. Growlmon and Kayubimon felt the sting, but Leomon dodged out of the way. Vermindramon turned back and began to move towards the fleeing humans. However, Leomon leapt onto his back, and plunged his sword into Vermindramon's back. Vermindramon screamed and thrashed about. Leomon wrenched his sword out and prepared to stab again. Vermindramon bucked off Leomon and rounded on him with blazing eyes. One claw shot out towards Leomon and pierced his left shoulder, pinning him to the ground. Leomon roared out in pain. Jeri looked back and saw her partner being attacked. She slashed a power card which energized Leomon. He wrenched himself out of Vermindramon's grip and began running towards his partner. Rika grabbed Jeri and pulled her to continue running. Growlmon and Kayubimon went to bar Vermindramon's path again, but the beast had officially had enough. It charged barreling right through the two Digimon and sprinted towards its quarry. With a leap from its powerful legs Vermindramon soared of the Tamers onto the other side of them. It wheeled around and glared at the Tamers evilly. Growlmon and Kayubimon ran as fast as they could to catch up to the beast. An idea suddenly struck Rika. She darted away from the group and sprinted towards a plateau all the while yelling to get Vermindramon's attention. Vermindramon took the bait and charged after her. Rika ran with all her might to one of the closer land masses, while looking back at Kayubimon. Kayubimon was running to catch up with Rika.  
  
"Kayubimon, get me outta here!" Rika yelled. Kayubimon teleported to Rika, grabbed her color with her mouth, and teleported on top of the plateau. For perhaps a whole five seconds Vermindramon kept barreling on until it noticed that its prey wasn't there. It looked around, as if they were a few feet away. Then, it simply roared and turned back to the other tamers. They had been staring, watching Vermindramon chase Rika. When Vermindramon looked at them however, they all split off in opposite directions. Takato went towards another plateau, Henry kept on towards the forest, and Jeri in a straight line between them. Vermindramon charged after the first one, Takato. On the side of the plateau was an opening, large enough for both Growlmon and Takato to fit through. They made for the opening, with Vermindramon closing the gap all the time. Vermindramon was practically breathing down his neck when Takato hurled himself in after Growlmon. Vermindramon slammed into the rock wall and bounced away. A tremor shook the cave, and suddenly a cascade of rocks came down, barring the entrance.  
  
Vermindramon shook himself and looked at the rock wall. There was no way he was getting through, so he looked and saw Jeri and Leomon running directly away. Vermindramon chased after her eagerly. There was no where for her to hide. Vermindramon gained quickly on the two. It seemed like there wouldn't even be a fight to take them down.  
  
As Vermindramon neared the two, he coiled and sprung forward. Jeri turned just in time to see the beast lunging for her. A frantic terror entered her, and she sprinted harder than she ever had in her life. When she looked back forwards, something else made her stomach clench. In that one second she was able to wonder what scared her more: a giant rat creature lunging toward her with the sole purpose of eating her, or the data stream that was flying towards her. The data stream swept her up and transported far away. The stream passed, and Vermindramon just missed it. It crashed and slid on the rocky ground. Vermindramon got up and roared angrily, looking around to find anyone else. No one was in sight, but there was a scent that Vermindramon caught on the wind. It was the fourth human. Vermindramon tracked the scent into the forest, and continued the hunt.  
  
Lieutenant Daar strode down the corridor leading to his Corrupted Monolith and the platoon of Dark Digimon with a nasty smile playing around his face. He had just been given the chance to prove himself to the master. It would be no more boring computer work for him. He would finally have a chance to go into battle. And if he succeeded in this battle, a promotion would be coming his way! This was a glorious day indeed! Maybe he would be promoted to a field officer. If he proved himself in battle there, who knows where this road would lead. Daar entered the barracks and immediately saw what he would be going with. A group of dark Digimon was congregated around the door. Daar saw a lot of rookies and champions.even a few ultimates!  
  
Over to the left of the group was his Corrupted Monolith. Monoliths were big docile creatures that lived on some far away universe. They were basically big horses with rat-like hair and sharp jagged teeth. They were docile, even with the sharp teeth and being fifteen feet tall. All they ate were plants, although the plants where they lived were rather violent. The Corrupted Monoliths were monstrosities compared to the originals. Their hair was pure black and some of the flesh was falling off. Some of their body was ripped out and replaced with missile pods and energy guns. Their heads were half cyborg so that they could be controlled through the seat dug out of their backs, yet muscle power would be used to go anywhere. The eyes were removed and instead scanners and sensors were put in. The way the electronics were powered was just sick and twisted. The brain was preserved, and then sealed in a fluid that would force it to create electrical signals and then sealed in the monolith. This power source would almost last for fifty years. Daar climbed up the ladder and hopped into the seat. One of the dark Digimon walked over to him. It stared up at him before asking,  
  
"Where are we going?" No one was really sure how these things loyalty was ensured. All that was known was that they were sent into one big room with The Master screaming and clamoring to get out, and one minute later came out obedient slaves.  
  
"Follow me," Daar snarled. He glanced at a screen with a marker on it. That was the Trespasser. Daar moved his Corrupted Monolith forward and out the open door, the Dark Digimon pursuing, heading out to destroy all who opposed The Master. 


	5. Prelude to War

Chapter 5

Prelude to War

Walk This World

By Toxic Picnic

Authors Notes: Hey everyone, I decided to write another chapter in this before my second chapter of Demon Hunters. Thank you for all of your reviews, I really appreciate them. And now, for Walk this World. 

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon at all. I've been forgetting to do this, so I'll say it again. I don't own Digimon at all. No seriously, I don't. Sewerdramon, Vermindramon, Crowmon, Ravendrimon, and Raptordramon are mine, as is the plot.

In the human mind, there are a lot of times when one thinks that, "this can't get any worse." It could be the loss of a loved one, or maybe some other tragic event that breaks one's heart or brings deep concern. For Rika, this was one of those times, and that phrase was clear on her thoughts. She would be proven wrong several times after however, but she didn't know that yet. 

For a long time she just stood there, staring out at the forest in which Henry disappeared into, before Kyubimon finally spoke.

"What do you plan to do?" She asked her Tamer while looking at her. Rika paused before answering.

"I'll have to go and help Henry. That thing'll kill him if we don't help him. I was just trying to think of a plan to beat it," She replied still staring into the distance. 

"We won't be able to beat Vermindramon unless I can Matrix Digivolve," Kyubimon explained as she surveyed a long scratch in her back. 

"Then how will we help Henry?" shouted the other. 

"Well, I do agree with you that we have to get him away from that forest and that beast, but I'm also concerned with your safety. If we go into that forest, your life is in danger," Kyubimon countered.

"Why?" Rika questioned. 

"That forest is Raptordramon territory," the Digimon looked at her Tamer's face and continued when she saw the bewildered expression. "They're dinosaur like Digimon that are very powerful and dangerous. They can be somewhat territorial, yet they allow explanation for trespassers. They might not harm Henry, but it depends on what kind of Raptordramon he meets up with. He is traveling with a wounded though, so they'll actually probably take him to their tribe for healing."

"But what if Vermindramon catches up with him first?" Rika asked grimly. There was a morbid pause before Rika continued, "Alright, we go in, find him, and try to get to the tribe for help. We'll have to move quickly to find him before Vermindramon." Kyubimon nodded as Rika hopped on her back. 

"Okay, let's go!" Rika exclaimed as Kyubimon teleported of the mesa, and scampered for the forest. 

"There's no way we're going to move these rocks!" Takato shouted as he stamped his foot. He and Growlmon, for the last half an hour had toiled away trying to move the rock that was barring their path. The problem was, it was either too heavy to move, or by moving it they would collapse the cave even more. 

"Let's take a break and we'll decide how to shift these boulders after," Takato suggested. 

"Okay," Growlmon agreed. Takato began to pacing around, and a few moments later Growlmon followed in suit. After a while, Growlmon reverted to Guilmon because he kept bumping his head off of the ceiling. 

"I still haven't thought of anything," Takato admitted, "What about you."

"Well," Guilmon pondered, "We could continue down this tunnel and see where it takes us." The other looked and saw a tunnel lit by torches curving out of sight from them.

"How did I miss that?" he wondered to himself. "Right then, let's see where this thing goes." Takato began his trek down the path as Guilmon swung in at his side. As he stepped past the first torch, a light suddenly flared to both his sides. Takato jumped back in surprise. A glyph had just illuminated itself with an eerie glow. The one on his left was blue, and the one on his right was the same one but orange. Takato examined it from a safe distance. It wasn't of any language he knew. He tentatively took a few steps forward. Another rune flared into life. The tamer continued on, more runes flaring into life as he went. Finally, as he rounded the last corner he approached the final glyphs with a door blocking his path. They did not illuminate when he approached however. They were both symbols that he had seen before. The one on his left was just a bold V, while the one on his right was four triangles, three touching one point on the center triangle. Takato examined them closely and noticed that there was a canal dug into the wall that led to the door. He touched the triangle symbol, and quickly pulled his hand back when it began to glow. He looked over at the V, and touched it. It too began to glow. Takato put two and two together, and touched both at the same time. 

The glow surrounded him for a minute as the energy ran up the canals. Both met at the center and together illuminated an engraving in on the door. The engraving, which was in green, was of some sort of dragon. The beast was muscular, with huge purple bat-like wings. Six huge horns protruded out of its head. The picture was of it roaring, but it was only visible for a second, because the door slid open pushing the monster out of sight. 

On the other side of the door was a huge circular chamber, set with torches all around the outside. In the middle of the room was an altar, and behind it was a huge stone tablet, that stretched to the top of the fifty foot ceiling. As Takato stepped into the room, Guilmon still trailing, he noticed something glowing on the Altar. He cautiously stepped up to it, and looked down. There was a card, set into a groove in the altar. It glowed a mysterious green, and was unlike any card he had ever seen before. Two yellow lines moved up the sides, and then crossed in the middle. As Takato picked it up to examine the card more closely, there was suddenly a loud rumbling and a slamming sound. Takato whipped around and saw that the door had shut. He hurried up to it and pounded on it.

"Ah, come on! Let me out!" He screamed while banging on it. He continued in this manner for a while, before finally just giving up. He pocketed the card instinctively; completely unaware that he was even doing it. Instead of doing more useless pounding, he decided on surveying this room a little more. 

"Takato, what's this?" Guilmon asked staring up at the big stone tablet near the back of the room. 

"I dunno," the other admitted as he approached it. Undoubtedly it was huge. There were some runes near the bottom, close enough to read if he could decipher the language. Suddenly the runes shone a bright green. Started from the top, and working quickly down, they suddenly changed into English. 

It read "To return to whence thy came, 

You must first play the game.

Travel through the mysterious maze,

And travel through the mystic haze.

For at the end you will see,

At which place you need to be.

Pass through the riddles thick and thin,

And thou art sure to win.

Passage to the surface world,

And two's destiny shall be unfurled.

Now go, pass through this gate,

Come now, to learn your fate."

When the final words had translated, a door next to the tablet slid out of sight. There was a dimly lit passage on the other side. Takato looked at Guilmon, who was surveying the writing. 

"I can't read," he commented. Takato laughed, but then set his face.

"Well, I guess we know where we have to go. So, let's get to it!" He sprinted for the door with Guilmon following in close pursuit. They charged through the door, and down the hall, with Guilmon yelling "But I still can't read... where do we have to go?" The door slid shut behind them, locking them in.

Two figures fell from the sky, plummeting at a rate that by normal standards would have been fatal in they would have crashed into the ground. Standards were not normal however, and neither did they hit the ground. Two loud splashes echoed across the completely deserted beach. Jeri swam to the surface as spat out a mouthful of water. Then she began coughing violently. Leomon came up beside her and lifted her out of the water. He carried her to the shore and held her up until she stopped coughing.

"Thank you," she smiled at Leomon. Before Leomon had a chance to speak, there was suddenly an explosion of water as a huge creature burst form the water. Seadramon hissed its arrival and glared down at Leomon and Jeri as it advanced towards them. Leomon leapt up and prepared for battle.

"Fist of the Beast King!" he roared launching his attack from his fist. Seadramon dodged to the side, and a look of genuine surprise covered his face. 

"I say, what ever did you do that for?" he cried out. Leomon had gone to draw his sword, but suddenly stopped. According to the look on his face, his experiences in the Digital World had never prepared him for anything like this.

"That thing could've hurt someone you know!" Seadramon yelled again.

"I- I'm sorry. I thought you were going to attack us," Leomon explained. The other didn't look surprised at this however. 

"Oh, I'm sorry. I get that a lot. It's in the nature of us Seadramon to look somewhat intimidating, I must say! Oh well, no blood no harm, right," he conversed happily with Leomon and Jeri, both of who were temporarily stunned by him. 

"Oh, I say, is that a human? Wow, I've never seen a real live human before! I must say, this is quite the day. Too bad it's going to be ruined soon," Seadramon trailed off grimly. 

"Why? What's going to ruin your day?" Jeri asked curiously. 

"Well, some Scorpiomon chap came up to me and told me to join some guy. He called him 'The Master' I believe. And now he's going to come meet me today. If I don't join him, he said he'd kill me. Oh, I must say, that can't be good. Oh well, maybe I can escape," he added thoughtfully. 

"Hmm, well I'd try to help you, but we were just recently attacked, and I'm not sure how much good I'd be," Leomon admitted as he surveyed his injured arm.

They all sat in silence for a while before Jeri suddenly started and shrieked, "Ah! Who's that?" She pointed at something lying in the sand. 

"Oh, that's Andromon. I found him floating downstream on a river a little south of here. He fell unconscious when I sat him down on the sand. He's been lying there for a day," Leomon and Jeri cautiously approached the sleeping Digimon. He was truly unconscious, and most of his armor was completely broken. There was no way to tell if he was going to make it or not, although his body was in real bad shape. Occasionally he would almost burst into data, but it would reassemble itself before that would happen. One of his shoulder pads seemed to be digging into his skin. Jeri carefully gripped it and pulled. The shoulder pad easily slid off. Suddenly the Digimon turned bright yellow. His shape changed from tall and thin to shorter and bulkier. When the light faded, a Guardromon was in his place. Before they had time to react the new Digimon opened his eyes and slowly sat up.

"Ohhh, my head," he moaned as he reached up and rubbed it.

"Oh my, you're up, I must say. Even though you don't look like you did before," Seadramon cried with glee. Guardromon looked at him, then suddenly raised his arms and yelled, "Guardian Barrage!" The attack raced towards Seadramon, who again dodged.

"Hey, watch it!" He exclaimed exasperatedly. Leomon placed a hand on Guadromon's shoulder.

"Hold on a minute, he's not our enemy. Why don't you tell us where you've come from," he suggested. Guardromon looked at him for the first time.

"Who are you?" he asked. 

"I'm Leomon, and this is Jeri." He explained.

The machine Digimon then saw Jeri, and his expression changed. "Wow, a Human is here!" He thought for a moment before beginning his tale. 

"I was trying to help free a group of Geckomon from a powerful Digimon called Orochimon. I fought Orochimon, but I was defeated. In the battle I was knocked into a river, but all I remember is going over a waterfall before blacking out," He explained. 

"Oh, that's terrible. So the Geckomon are still enslaved then," asked Jeri. 

"Yes, but they wouldn't help me because they were afraid that Orochimon would attack them for their disobedience. He forces them to make a type of milkshake that would energize him. They must still be making it for him now," Guardromon trailed off. 

"Well, there's no way you'll be getting up to those Geckomon again. If you floated down the river I think you did, then you fell down a couple of waterfalls," Seadramon explained. Guardromon looked at him. 

"So, what's your story?" he asked.

"Oh, you know, found you floating in the river, pulled you out, met these folks. That's about it really," Seadramon sighed.

"I thank you for saving me," the other stood up and bowed lightly.

Leomon and Jeri smiled, and Leomon even opened his mouth before he was cut off by a huge explosion of sand.

"I HAVE RETURNED!" A voice said from the dust. Standing there was Scorpiomon, his front claws raised high in the air, tail arched over his back.

"Ah, it's Scorpiomon!" yelled Jeri. She got up and backed away as Leomon leapt in front of her. Scorpiomon examined his surroundings.

"Ah, I see that you've brought more friends Seadramon. Good, good, The Master could always use fresh recruits," he sneered.

"Who is this master of yours?" Seadramon inquired cautiously. 

"He, is truly the ruler of this planet, his power expands every day. No one can escape his grasp, even the Digimon Sovereign have felt his touch. He comes, not from this planet, but from a faraway dimension. Once he rules over this world, he will bring peace to it. It is the only true way for peace, to allow him to control everyone. Come, into his presence. He will welcome you into his cause gladly. Now, follow me if you wish to help his cause," Scorpiomon finished triumphantly.

"NO! I'll never join with your 'Master'" Jeri put mocking emphasis on the word. Scorpiomon glared at her before Leomon roared "I agree. There's no way I'll allow some maniac to take over this world!"

"Nor will I. I will fight you to the last!" Gaurdromon burst out. 

"Why are you helping me? This is my problem, I must say," Seadramon brought his head close to the three and whispered.

"Don't you know, friends always help other friends. There's no way we're letting you fight this guy buy yourself," Leomon explained.

"Yeah, you helped me out by saving me. This is my chance to repay you," Gaurdromon replied. 

"Friends? Okay then, I'll try to help you guys," Seadramon set himself for battle. 

"Very well, if you do not wish to side with The Master, then I will simply have to destroy you. Perhaps your data can still be of some use to Him. Prepare to die!" Scorpiomon set himself in the sand, and they saw his eyes that were now glowing red.

"Jeri!" Leomon called for his partner.

"Right! Digi-Modify… Healing Activate!" Jeri slashed one of her only extremely rare healing cards, which instantly cured the wounds Leomon had.

Scorpiomon charged them, and swiped with one of his claws. Seadramon jerked his head out of the way, Leomon grabbed Jeri and did a back-flip to avoid the attack, and Guardromon rolled to the side just barely managing to dodge it. Jeri ran back a little to prevent being hit by him. 

"Digi-Modify… Power activate!" Leomon received a burst of power from the card. 

"Fist of the Beast King!" He roared, letting loose a powerful attack from his fist. The attack soared at Scorpiomon, who remained quite motionless. Then, suddenly, he thrust his two claws forwards and blocked the attack. This caused Guardromon and Seadramon to launch an all out attack.

"Ice Blast!" 

"Guardian Barrage!"

The two attacks came in at Scorpiomon, who did a frontward roll to avoid being hit. The result was the attacks colliding and doing no harm. However, when Scorpiomon rolled forward he clubbed Leomon with the base of his tail, which knocked him down. As Scorpiomon finished the roll, he pinned the other with his claws. Then, he began pressing the life out of Leomon. There was suddenly a loud whistling as two missiles screamed in and collided with the side of Scorpiomon, completely taking him off guard. Scorpiomon let go to unleash his rage on Guardromon. Leomon quickly stood up and punched the unsuspecting Digimon in the face. Then, before he could react, Leomon unsheathed his short sword and brought it across Scorpiomon's face. The other roared with agony and thrashed all about, covering his face as best he could. The pain, it was unbearable. The fool would pay for this disgrace. 

Scorpiomon opened his eyes and stared at Leomon with uncontrollable malice. Before another disgrace could be inflicted, he swung with one of his claws. The bastard dodged it! Another swing. Dammit, another miss! Before he could act again, a blast of cold energy suddenly enveloped him. His sides were freezing up around him. Within seconds he couldn't move. There was suddenly a loud whistling sound as two missiles rocketed towards Scorpiomon. He couldn't block it, but he could brace himself for impact. A second later there was a huge explosion and a painful burning sensation on his side. At this, Scorpiomon went into a ballistic rage. He swung his tail around catching Leomon off guard and knocking him to the ground. 

"Tail Blade!" The rampaging Digimon roared. He brought his tail over his head in an arc that shot a blade of energy at Guardromon, who wasn't quick enough to dodge and was sent flying by the blast. Scorpiomon then turned on Seadramon and fired three tail blades at him. Seadramon had no chance at dodging them, and was knocked down, his head in the sand. He then charged at him, and began beating him with his claws and tail.

"I gave you a chance to join me. Now it seems that I'll end up killing you!" He bellowed evilly. Seadramon tried to resist at first by whipping Scorpiomon with his, tail, and then firing an Ice Blast at him, but to no avail. Eventually he just continued taking the pain that was being inflicted on him. Finally, he just gave up and embraced death. Death however, had other plans. 

With the sudden explosion of sand and the sound of a sword being drawn, Leomon plunged his sword into the exposed underbelly of Scorpiomon. Two big digging drills disappeared on sides of Leomon's hands, obvious work of a modify card. There was a tremendous roar of pain as Scorpiomon thrashed about causing himself even more agony with the sword being bucked about through his insides. Two explosions of Guardromon's rockets rocked his body and sent him flying through the air roaring with anguish. He finally landed in the ground and lay motionless. 

"We've beaten him!" Guardromon sounded thrilled. 

"Don't be so sure," Cautioned Leomon.   
  


"Be careful!" cried Jeri, "I just saw him move." 

Indeed, Scorpiomon did move. He moved much more than they expected. With one movement he flipped up on to his legs, the three staring at him in horror. Dark energy started to build up around him. Once he had enough dark power built up, he unleashed it by swinging his tail is a horizontal slash.

"Stiletto Crusher!" He roared, letting loose a huge wave of dark energy. Both Guardromon and Leomon attempted to get out of the way, but it was in vain. They were both hit, and smashed to the ground. Scorpiomon approached them with evil in his eyes.

"You should not have come to this place!" He roared as he clubbed Leomon for trying to get up.

"You should not have interfered!" He did the same to Guardromon who was attempting to raise his arms to attack.

"Your punishment is death!" He finally roared, raising his tail, about to deliver the final blow to Guardromon and Leomon, who were lying helplessly on the ground.

"No! Don't! I- I won't let you…" Seadramon hissed faintly.

"You won't let me do what?" Sneered Scorpiomon.

"I won't let you…" suddenly Seadramon turned bright yellow. He grew thirty feet longer, and a large horn erupted from his head. Armor appeared on most of his body. When the light faded, a powerful Ultimate level Digimon was staring down at Scorpiomon.

"…hurt my friends!" Roared Megaseadramon. Scorpiomon was no longer interested at all in the two Champions behind him, but had his full attention on the newly Digivolvled Ultimate. And judging by the look on his face, he was purely terrified. Without warning Megaseadramon whipped his tail at Scorpiomon, who was knocked to the side. With him lying prone, the Aquatic Dragon Digimon let loose his final attack.

"Lightning Javelin!" A blast of lightning erupted from the horn on his head. It struck Scorpiomon and sent thousands of volts of electricity through his body. When the attack was over, Scorpiomon was still lying there. Suddenly he burst into red data, which was absorbed into Megaseadramon.

"Whew," Jeri sighed, who had been holding her breath the whole time, "I'm glad that's over."

Leomon strained to get up; it seemed he was injured again. Guardromon's body creaked as he got up; most of his body was badly beaten up. Megaseadramon didn't have a scratch on him however. In fact, it looked like he hadn't even been in the fight. He was busy checking out his new appendages.

"Cool, I have a horn," he growled. He had lost the squeaky voice he had as a champion. 

"Congratulations on Digivolving Megaseadramon," Jeri congratulated him. 

"Hmm, I've never seen an ultimate that strong, other than Vermindramon. He only lost because you Digivolved and he was extremely arrogant, never finishing us off when he had the chance," Leomon said. 

"You're right. We were lucky to survive that fight," Guardromon admitted.

"What I want to know is how all these Ultimates are getting so strong. Even though they should be powerful, usually three champions and one Tamer can defeat a single Ultimate," Leomon admitted.

"Then again, remember Indramon and Vikaralamon? It took at least one Ultimate to defeat them!" Jeri retorted. 

"Wait, remember all that dark energy when Scorpiomon used his last attack. I've never known a Scorpiomon to have an attack like that," Guardromon countered. 

"True, it seems very likely that this 'Master' is to blame," Megaseadramon put in. 

"You're probably right about that. So, what do you think we should do? We should probably go and find our friends," Jeri suggested.

"Excuse me, but do you mind if I come with you. If I follow you I might be able to get back my lost power and go help those Geckomon," Guardromon requested.

"Sure, we'd be glad to have you," Jeri smiled.

"Thank you," the other replied.

"Hey, if you told me where you came from, I could help you get back to where you came from. I'm very well informed about Digital World geography," Megaseadramon explained. Both Leomon and Jeri described to him where they came from. He thought for a minute before finally deciding on a place called "The Mesa Plain". 

"Let me see, I believe there's a forest somewhere near there with a river that flows out into the ocean. Maybe I can take you as far up that river that I can go, and you could try to make it back to your friends. It'd be the least that I could do for you," Smiled Megaseadramon.

"Sounds great," Jeri returned the smile. Both Guardromon and Leomon nodded in agreement. In a few moments they were all on top of Megaseadramon's back. Megaseadramon swam off, but kept his head above the water at all times. Leomon smiled. 

"No matter who this 'Master' Guy is, we'll get him!" He thought, "I swear it!"

Things were not looking up for Henry and Terriermon. Terriermon couldn't move at all. It seemed that the acid was eating through his muscle, making movement impossible. If he didn't reach help soon, it was possible he might die. He didn't have any idea where he was going, he was just wandering and hoping to find help before Vermindramon found him. Henry didn't have any healing cards; he had traded his only one to Takato before he had even come to the Digital World. He couldn't stand the possibility of Terriermon dying. He had been together with Terriermon for what seemed like forever. If he died, he had no idea what he would do to himself. It had been his fault, he ordered Gargomon into battle. He should have known that thing was too strong.   
No, that wasn't right. He couldn't keep beating himself up about this. He would just have to find a way to save Terriermon himself. 

Because he wasn't paying attention, Henry tripped over a tree root and fell flat on his face. He almost dropped Terriermon, but managed to hold his arms out in front of him and grab onto the little Digimon. He got up and brushed himself off. Suddenly the sound of laughter reached his ears. He looked up into a nearby tree, and he saw a fairly large black bird Digimon. Instead of the usual one pair of wings this one had two, a long, sharp orange beak and two beady green eyes. Two powerful yellow talons gripped the branch the bird settled on. Its head was like a frill of black feathers. The bird chuckled with delight.

"You might want to be careful where you're walking. The forest is full of little traps like that," The bird still chortled.

"Thanks," Henry replied without a smile. The bird looked at what was in Henry's hands. 

"My," it noticed, "that Digimon doesn't look too good. Where did you come by it?" 

"He's mine," Henry answered curtly, "and would you happen to know where I could find a place to get him help" 

"Of course I know a place, and I'd gladly lead you to it. It's a hidden town where the inhabitants are more than skilled enough to take care of any injury problem you have. And the town is hidden, so to offer complete solitude and protection. But first, you must answer my riddle! If you fail to answer it, then I'll take your Digimon and claim his data for my own!" He cawed. 

Harry weighed his chances. If he succeeded then Terriermon might be saved, but he had no guarantee that he would be allowed to get to the town. Then again, if he failed Terriermon would most certainly die. And if he didn't accept the riddle then he probably wouldn't find the town the bird spoke of. There was only one thing for it.

"Alright, I'll give it a shot," Henry took a deep breath and exhaled. 

The other recited, "The rich need it, the Poor have it, but if either were to eat it, they would surely parish."

Henry stopped. Riddles were not his strong suit. He preferred things dealing with computers. Well, what do the rich need? They can buy almost anything they want. Henry couldn't think of anything that a rich person could need, so he decided to come back to that. As for the poor, well it was exactly the opposite. He couldn't think of anything a beggar on the street had. Perhaps hope? No, it didn't seem right. Well, if both were to eat hope they would die, because you can't eat hope. Eating hope is like eating nothing…

"That's it!" roared Henry Triumphantly. The bird looked down at him with a neutral expression. He smiled up at it. 

"Nothing! It's nothing! If either were to eat it, they would surely perish from starvation," He explained grinning. The bird nodded and said, "That's right. Don't take any offense to the whole deleting thing. It's a custom of my people that if someone is to be lead to our town, then they must answer a riddle." The bird fluttered down and held out its claw. 

"I'm Ravendrimon, pleased to meet you," Ravendrimon shook Henry's hand.

"I'm Henry," he returned.  

"Well, about that Digimon of yours, let's get going! He isn't looking any better," he said, and indeed some of the data around Terriermon's stomach was looking fuzzy as if it would delete itself soon. Ravendrimon flew through the underbrush for about five minutes with Henry following behind. Finally he stopped at a little stream. It was so out of the way, that if Henry had come alone he wouldn't have noticed it. The black bird guided him down the stream for another five minutes until the sound of rushing water could be heard. As they cleared through a particularly dense part of underbrush, Henry saw that the stream they were following merged with several other streams and became one big river, about fifteen feet across. About fifty yards further from where they all joined, was a waterfall, that cascaded about three hundred feet down. At the base of the water fall was a huge lake that extended almost as far as he could see. He couldn't see any kind of town though. Ravendrimon showed him a small pass that he could easily maneuver down without getting hurt. It took about ten minutes to get down the pass even though the pass was easy to travel. At the bottom of the slope he still couldn't see a town, but Ravendrimon led him into a cave nearby. Henry was about ten feet behind him when suddenly something leapt into his path. Bared teeth followed by a snarling noise reveal a big male Raptordramon in his path. One of its eyes was completely sealed up, with a scar running across it.

"Stay your ground One Eye, he's allowed to pass," Ravendrimon told him.

"He is…human, unlike what I have seen before. How can he be trusted?" asked One Eye the Raptordramon. Henry was completely terrified as this was the first time he'd seen the beast.

"He comes with wounded. You know our code, to heal the wounded and help the enfeebled, so was laid down by the ancestors of our ancestors when Heaven's Tier was first founded. We will give him aid, food, and shelter, and let him go on his way," Ravendrimon squawked at the other. 

"I know the code!" Snarled One Eye, "But that doesn't mean I'm going to trust him."

"Of course you won't. You never trust anyone. Come now Henry, we must be along," the Bird Digimon continued down the cave path. The path swung around to the right, and Henry realized that as they traveled down the path, they were going around the lake. 

"Ravendrimon, why are we traveling through a cave around the lake? Couldn't we just cross the lake?" He asked curiously. 

"Well, I could just fly over, but you'd have a lot of trouble getting across because the lake if crawling with hostile Digimon. Plus that lake is huge, so it'd take a long time to get across. This way is much safer, even if it's longer," the other explained. Henry nodded, it made sense. 

They continued along the path for a while, and finally they reached the end. When they rounded the corner, the light was almost too bright for Henry. He shielded his eyes from the blinding sunlight, but the next second he was beyond the cave and gasped at what he saw.

The lake was much more beautiful from this side of it. It glistened in the sun, and reflected beautifully on the gates of Heavens Tier. Many Raptordramon, Ravendrimon, and Crowmon were drinking from the clear waters. The gates were made of stone hewn from the surrounding mountainsides. Inside the gates were a few well positioned trees that added well to the décor of the place. Most of the land beyond that was flat plain, where many Raptordramon could be seen running at blinding speeds. 

"Wow," was all that Henry could get out. 

"Yeah, that's why we call it Heaven's Tier," Ravendrimon explained. 

"So, Terriermon can be healed here?" he asked.

"Of course," Ravendrimon said as he continued along towards the town. As they approached the gates, there were a lot more of the Digimon to speak with. Ravendrimon chatted happily with a few and thanked them for their help with some kind of encounter with a Skullmeremon. A Raptordramon even came up to Henry and questioned him about the real world. Finally when they got to the gates, Ravendrimon yelled for them to be opened. A moment later a loud creak announced the gates ajar.

"You see, Raptordramon may seem like violent, vicious people, but really we just want to live in peace. The last war we were ever involved in was at the beginning of the Digital World. Of course, everyone in our clan knows how to fight. It's our law in our civilization," Explained the bird. To be honest, Henry was taken aback. He had expected to be quite a brutal race, but when he saw the Crowmon playing in the trees, and the Raptordramon racing each other in the fields, and then he completely changed his opinion on them.

"Well then, let's get that Digimon of yours fixed up. You'll probably have to stay the night here then, because it'll be dark soon," said Ravendrimon.

"How do you know?" inquired Henry.

"I just do," the other countered. 

They walked along a path leading to a clump of ten trees.

"Oh Witch Doctor, your faithful friend comes in need of your skills," said the bird. 

"Ah, is that you then buddy? How fares your noble father the elder?" A voice said from the shadows of the trees.

"He's good, as you know his days increase in numbers," retorted the other. "But this is not the time, for I have found a Digimon who requires the skill of healing." Indeed, Terriermon kept almost bursting into data. 

"Hmm, wow he's almost gone! I'd better get started right away. And is that a human with him. I thought they were just the stuff of legends. Shows how much I know. So anyway, tell me what happened?" asked the Witch Doctor. There was a rustling from the branches of one of the closer trees. 

"He was attacked by a Vermindramon and got some of that acid in him," explained Henry. 

"Oh my, that's going to take quite the strength to heal. Let me collect some of my special herbs for this ritual," the Witch Doctor said and there was more rustling. After a moment a tiny little Crowmon emerged with a bag in his beak. There was also a necklace around him, which at the end had a long sharp long claw. Henry was surprised as he was expecting some big Raptordramon. The Witch Doctor proceeded to untie the bag and take some materials out.

"Lie him down so I may work on him," he said without faltering in taking out the herbs. Henry obliged and watched as the Crowmon set the herbs in certain places on Terriermon's body and began muttering as he did so. After a while all the herbs were in place. Terriermon had stopped almost bursting into data. Instead he just lay silent. Suddenly the Witch Doctor raised his beak into the air and began cawing incantations in an unknown language. Then he brought his head down and said, "By the power of the heredity passed down through my generations of Witch Doctors, and the power of The One Hero, I hereby cleanse this creature of the evil inflicted upon it." He then grabbed the claw on the end of his necklace and cut it through the belly of Terriermon. The wound disappeared almost instantly, and there was a bright flash of light. The herbs that were on Terriermon disappeared in the flash and Terriermon opened his eyes.

"Terriermon!" Henry cried. At first the little Dog Digimon seemed dazed and confused, but when he saw his tamer, he too cried out.

"Henry!" He embraced the human laughing and whispered, "I thought I was dead for sure." 

"No way, I would never give up on you," the other replied. Then he set down Terriermon and said, "Thank you," to Ravendrimon. 

"Anytime," the Bird spoke as darkness came abruptly upon them. "So, I suppose you'll be staying the night?"

Vermindramon tracked the human deeper and deeper into the forest, coming closer and closer the whole time. The trail led down a path, finally to a small little creek. He lifted his nose and smelled the air to pick up the fresh scent again. It came as a real surprise when there was no scent to be found. The beast was confused. Again it raised its nose to sniff. Once again it found nothing. How could the human's scent just disappear? Vermindramon stomped his foot in anger. He had escaped the wrath of the Master! No one must escape! Suddenly a different scent met his keen nose. It was the girl with the fox! They had escaped him once before, but it would not happen again. Vermindramon swung around and charged through the underbrush, fully intent on killing that human once and for all!

"Well, now what do we do?" Kazu asked, "We have no idea where to start looking for our friends." 

"Yeah, we got separated by a data stream, who knows how far away we are from them now?" Kenta agreed. 

"I know, we don't have the faintest clue about where they could be, but we have to do something rather than just sitting here," Davis kicked a rock as he spoke. 

"Well, maybe we could split up and meet back here?" Veemon suggested. 

"Hmm, that's not a bad idea. We could all go in different directions and see if anyone had seen them. What do they look like?" asked Ryo. They all explained what Takato, Rika, Henry, Jeri, and their partners looked like. Once they explained it to him, he nodded. They were all about to set off, when suddenly Cyberdramon started to growl.

"What is it?" Ryo asked cautiously.

"Ryo, I can smell something approaching. It's a Digimon," He hissed. 

"Where?" asked the other. He began sniffing around everywhere, trying to find where the creature was. Suddenly, there was a voice from behind them.

"Hi," it said. 

All of them whipped around to face the voice. They expected a huge hulking figure of evil, and Davis even thought it was a Digimon from Tyros. It was none of these things however. In fact, they couldn't even see anything around them.

"Down here," said the voice. They all looked down, and saw a cute little white Digimon at their feet. It was unmistakably Calumon. 

"Wanna play?" he asked. Veemon and Davis looked at each other. Both raised their eyebrows then looked back at the little Digimon. 

"Sure," they replied. 

"Okay, try to catch me! Here I go!" Calumon about faced and sprinted away from them. 

"Hey, wait up! That's not what I meant," Davis cried after him. Kazu crossed his arms and frowned, "This is not the time to be joking around. We should be looking for the others, not playing with Calumon." 

"Well, at least we found the little guy. I mean, that's why we came here right?" Kenta returned. 

"True, but now that we've found him, we should be getting back to the others," Kazu countered. 

"Hmm, perhaps we should see that he doesn't get away from them," commented Ryo as he saw how poorly Davis and Veemon were doing at catching him.

"Cyberdramon, you're up." The beast nodded to Ryo's command and sprinted towards them. He easily caught up and darted in front of Calumon. But as he bent down to grab the little Digimon, Calumon rushed under his outstretched legs and around his tail. Cyberdramon wore an expression that said, quite plainly, "That didn't just happen, did it?" 

"Good, try, maybe next time good buddy," Veemon said as he and Davis passed him. This cat and mouse game continued for another ten minutes, when Ryo, Kazu, and Kenta all joined in. After a while, they all got tired and just stopped. Calumon turned around and looked at them.

"Don't you want to play anymore?" he asked. 

"I'm tired," whined Kazu as he sat down. 

"Me too," agreed Kenta as he and the rest followed in suit. Cyberdramon had stopped trying to chase the little one, as he thought it was an insult to his dignity. Calumon walked over to them and sat down next to them.

"So, you're Calumon?" asked Davis. He nodded smiling.

"Where have you been?" The other asked quizzically.

"I fell from the sky with the fishies," he explained. They all looked at him quizzically. 

"Ah, and what are the fishies?" Ryo asked.

"Fishies," he countered. The other slapped his forehead, then sighed and smiled as if to say, "I could have known better." 

"What's that? Veemon suddenly stood up and pointed. Across the rugged terrain was a small red moving animal. It walked slowly, as if it were hurt. It couldn't be bigger than a dog.

"It looks hurt, let's see what's wrong," Davis suggested. All of them stood up and ran over to it. A minute later they were in front of it. The 'it' was a little Elecmon. One of its legs was broken, and its body was torn to shreds. 

"What happened?" Kazu asked it. 

"Army…coming…soon be here…not much time…help me," the creature gasped. 

"Get this creature some fresh water," Davis demanded at once. 

"Where?" Kenta asked. 

"Go that way until you reach those hills over there," Ryo gestured east, towards a mountain range, "at the base of the mountains there should be a stream. It should take you ten minutes there and back." Kazu and Kenta nodded, grabbed a canteen that Ryo had taken with him, and sprinted for the hills.

"What were you saying?" Davis asked the little Digimon.

"They're coming…ugh." Elecmon fell to the ground, and burst into data. All of them stared stunned for a minute, before Davis asked the question on all their minds.

"What the hell is happening?"

Rika trekked bravely through the woods, on top of Kyubimon's back. So far they hadn't met any Raptordramon, or found Henry.

"Kyubimon, do you have any Idea where we're going?" Rika asked.

"I can smell Henry's trail, but it's hidden. Vermindramon has been this way too," she explained. Rika gulped. Just then there was a crashing sound. Kyubimon stopped. Vermindramon burst through the undergrowth and swung at them. Kyubimon was knocked to the ground, and Rika fell off her back. They both got up cautiously, and stared into the beast's eyes. The eyes looked back with a fiendish look, right before he charged again. 

Ohhhh! Another cliff hanger. Like it? Well, let me know what you think. Catch ya later.


	6. The Journey Within

Walk This World

Chapter 6

The Journey Inwards

By Toxic Picnic

Author's Notes: Yeah. So it's been many many years since I updated this fic. I had a renewal of inspiration, dug out this piece of the story, finished it, and posted it. It's a little bit shorter than usual, but please just review anyway. Chapter 7 will be out in a couple weeks.

Takato rounded the corner, and jumped about three feet in the air. Guilmon started to growl. Both of their eyes were fixed on the enormous Digimon standing at the other end of the room they had just entered. Compared to the rest of the maze they had been navigating, this room was huge, spanning 30 feet long, 50 feet across, and at least 70 feet tall. However, the only thing actually in the room was the huge Digimon at the other end of the room. But it didn't look like any Digimon Takato had ever seen. It's body type looked much like Minotarumon, but it didn't have a metal gun on its right hand. Instead, its entire body was coated in silky purple robes. It wore a head ornament with many different mysterious symbols hanging down around its face. In its left hand was a staff, with a bright blue ball at the end of it. Takato took out his D-Power and held it up.

"Spiritminotarumon. Be careful Guilmon, he's a mega." He looked up at the Digimon. It was at least 25 feet tall. "That's all it says."

"What should we do Takato?" Guilmon growled, his eyes fixed on Spiritminotarumon.

"I don't know Guilmon. Maybe he didn't see us." A second later Spiritminotarumon's voice boomed across the room.

"Do not be afraid Takato. You are safe here. Come closer, let us talk." It spoke in a deep, soothing voice.

Takato looked at Guilmon, who glanced back up at him and shrugged. Takato weighed his options. This guy was a mega. If he really wanted to, he probably already could've destroyed Guilmon and Takato. But he said he wanted to talk. After thinking for a minute, Takato started to slowly walk across the room. Guilmon walked behind him.

"Takato, are you sure we can trust him?" Guilmon asked, still looking wary of Spiritminotarumon.

"I think if he wanted to hurt us, he already would have." Takato said. Guilmon nodded in response. They stopped about ten feet short of Spiritminotarumon and looked up at him. They still had to look almost straight up to see his face. For a moment, no one spoke. Then "The powers that once governed the Digital World have been warped." Spiritminotarumon stared down at them, a stern look on his face. "You have seen the results of this. You can no longer acquire the blue cards which allowed your Digimon to Matrix Digivolve."

"How has this happened?" Takato yelled up

"A dark power has disrupted the flow of space and time. He has come from another world. As you stand now, you cannot defeat him." The shaman Digimon furrowed his brow and continued, "In order for you to fight him, your Digimon must become more powerful."

"How can we do that? If Guilmon can't digivolve into WarGrowlmon, what do we do?" Takato looked at Guilmon, who looked concerned.

"There is another way. Although the traditional channels of Digivolution have been blocked, there is a power that the evil does not know about." Spiritminotarumon took a deep breath, and spoke, "The power of the ancients."

"What do you mean?" Asked Guilmon.

Spiritminotarumon lifted his staff and waved it. The room around them vanished. Instead, the three of them were speeding through space. In an instant, they appeared on a long plain.

"Where are we?" Takato asked, looking around.

"Ancient times." Spiritminotarumon replied. Takato and Guilmon weren't really sure what to make of that, so they didn't say anything else. Instead, they just watched Spiritminotarumon. He stood still for a full minute, and then pointed with his staff.

"There." He said. They looked. They could see three figures in the distance.. One of them was a huge dark figure, shrouded by evil energy. The others were two dinosaur type digimon. They looked strangely familiar. The way Takato, Guilmon, and Spiritminotarumon were positioned, they could only see the backs of the dinosaurs. The two digimon roared, and touched claws with each other. There was a flash of light. Takato and Guilmon were blinded. Suddenly they felt a rush of warmth. It wasn't a palpable warmth. It could only be felt in their hearts. But whatever it was, it made them smile.

The light faded away. Takato and Guilmon looked. They saw a humongous green digimon, with purple wings, and six horns on its head. It roared. A light eminated from it's mouth. There was a flash, and the dark creature was gone. Only the green digimon was left. It roared a terrifying scream, and started to glow. It shrunk to be quite small, until a few seconds later only two tiny dots were visible from their position. Two, tiny Digi-Eggs.

"They digivolved together?" Muttered Takato, taken aback.

"Yes." Mumbled Spiritminotauromon. "We know very little about what actually happened in this time. But the spirits are quite clear that there was a terrible evil assaulting our world. The Ancients feared this evil so much that they were willing to sacrifice their bodies to defeat it. They were willing to combine their spirits into one entity in order to harness the power necessary." Spiritminotauromon waved his staff, and once again they were soaring through blackness. A few seconds later, they were all standing in the large underground room in the maze.

"You must do this." He rumbled, mysteriously.

Takato stared, both windswept from the conversation that just took place, and the journey back to the present.

"You want Guilmon to combine with another digimon, like DNA digivolving?" He said, awestruck.

"Yes. It is the only way to defeat the evil that has returned to face us. You must harness the power of the ancients and destroy the great darkness that comes to enslave our world." Spiritminotauromon said.

"How do we do that?" Guilmon chipped in.

Spiritminotauromon stared down at them both for a few long seconds. Then he turned to face the wall behind him. With a wave of his staff, a large archway-shaped segment of the wall began to shine bright white. After a few seconds the portion of wall was no longer shining, but instead a pearly fog hung in the arch-shape. Spiritminotauromon turned back to Takato.

"You and your partner must journey within and learn to act, think, and fight as one…" The mega trailed off, still staring down.

Takato looked at the archway, then looked at Guilmon, who nodded reassuringly.

"Alright then buddy, let's go." Takato said boldly. He felt that so long as Guilmon was with him, he had nothing to fear. The two marched right up to the foggy gateway and daringly took a step into the fog.

With a sudden flash, and a sound like a thunderclap, both Takato and Guilmon were hurled backwards. They crashed hard onto the ground behind them. Spiritminotauromon turned slowly around to look at them.

"I thought you said me and my partner could go through there!" Yelled Takato, massaging a quickly forming bump on his head.

"I told you that you and your partner could go through, not you and your Digimon partner." Spiritminotauromon said mysteriously.

Takato blinked through the pain, then scowled up at the enormous Digimon.

"Well I hate to tell you but I don't have any other partners. I don't know what you're ta-" Takato started, but Spiritminotauromon cut him off in mid-sentence.

"Silence!" Shouted the Mega. "Your partner approaches."

Still stunned, Takato gave a quizzical look at Guilmon, who looked up at him from his upside-down position and shrugged. Spiritminotauromon raised his arm and pointed across the room. "There," he mummered.

Takato and Guilmon stood up and looked at where the other was pointing. On the far side of the room, they could see a small white light, almost like a floodlight being shone through a keyhole. Slowly, the light grew and grew and grew, until it resembled the archway now just behind them. In the center of the mass of light, they could see a dark shape starting to emerge. There was another flash of light, and a sound like a thunderclap, and two figures came bursting through the light.

"Your plan's working Davis!" Shouted Veemon, as he and Davis ran as fast as their legs could carry them from the enormous, hulking horse that was bearing down on them.

"Yeah, a little bit too well I think!" Davis yelled back, turning his head to try and get a look at Ryo in the distance. He saw the tamer with his back to Davis and Veemon, shouting to Cyberdramon who was engaging multiple dark champion-level Digimon. Not seconds after the little dying Elecmon that had approached them to warn them of what was coming, a half-dozen dark Digimon showed up, led by an enormous black horse, ridden by a human who called himself Lieutenant Daar. The man named Daar had given the usual villainous introduction regarding death and destruction if obedience wasn't given to his master. Being all to familiar at this point with those conversations, Davis had used that time to cultivate a plan with Ryo.

"We've gotta lead these things away from Kazu and Kenta, they're completely unprotected!" Davis had muttered urgently to Ryo under his breath. "I'll distract the big guy on the horse. You and Cyberdramon take care of all those other dark Digimon. Calumon," Davis had bent down at this, "you've gotta run. Go find Kazu and Kenta. They'll help you for now until we can take care of these guys." The little Digimon, understanding the urgency of the situation simply shook a little in fear, but then stiffened its resolve and nodded.

"Ok then," Davis raised his voice a little bit, right in the middle of a very dramatic part of Daar's speech while his arms were raised and he was shouting into the sky. He stood up, glanced at Ryo, who nodded, and then down at Calumon, who nodded again.

"NOW!"

The plan went off perfectly. The only problem was, Davis didn't realize until right then that HE was the whole reason that these enemies were there. Daar charged him with his enormous black steed, and Davis and Veemon had been ducking and running for the past 10 minutes, trying to avoid concentrated energy blasts, and just the sheer crushing weight of the beast.

Davis glanced around at their pursuers again, just in time to see a charged up blast of energy fire from the mouth of a gun sticking out of the side of the enormous black horse.

"DUCK!" He shouted as he grabbed Veemon and dove off to the side. There was a huge bang, and Davis felt himself go flying at least 10 feet up into the air, and at least another 50 feet away. He and Veemon hit the ground with a loud thud. His head pounding, his vision swimming before him, Davis stumbled blearily to his feet. He saw Daar on his dark steed continuing to bear down on them. He felt down into his pocket and pulled out…not a single modify card. Nothing to help Veemon digivolve. Maybe if he could just figure out how to do it again. He looked down at Veemon, just to see that his partner had been knocked unconscious by the blast. He just lay there limp on the ground.

In that moment Davis couldn't help but think that this was really the end. Another powerful energy blast was charging up on Daar's weapon. The horse was charging them at full pace now. He couldn't conceive of any feasible way to escape from his predicament…until he looked to his left. A huge mesa, 100 feet tall was right there. And at it's base was an opening, with a path that clearly led inside of it. The path was too small for Daar's horse to follow him in. It was strange, he handn't noticed it before. But right now Davis wasn't going to question his good fortune. If he could just get there in time…

Without wasting a second, Davis snatched Veemon up off the ground. He ran with strength that he didn't know he had. At full speed he hurtled himself to the small opening that he knew was his only salvation. With a quick glance back at Daar, he saw the gun attached to his steed about to fire another blast. Davis glanced back at the Mesa. He was only 30 yards away! His feet kept pounding and pounding. His legs were burning, but he pushed his pain out of his mind. 10 yards! He kept running. He heard a blast from behind him that he knew was Daar's weapon firing. With his last ounce of strength, he dove from about five feet outside of the mesa into the entrance of the cavern. He glanced back quickly, and saw a blast of energy aiming directly at him. As he hit the ground inside the entrance of the cavern, he closed his eyes and covered up Veemon. This was the end…

There was a loud crash, and a resounding earthquake all around them as the energy blast impacted. For one wild moment, he thought of his friends back home. Of Kari, Yolei, TJ or whatever, and Cody. He thought of all the older Digidestined who tried to tell him not to be so reckless. Not to make such rash choices.

'Well,' he thought, 'I just hope Kazu and Kenta make it out of here safely. They never asked for any of this…That's what will make this worth it. So long as I can protect my friends, I'll take the consequences myself… I just hope everyone's ok…'

After a few moments of this type of thought, it suddenly occurred to Davis that he had been thinking way too long on this issue. Surely, he must be dead by now. He cracked his eyes open slowly, and looked out. Veemon was still pinned underneath him, on a rocky surface. Rocky walls were surrounding him. And outside, smoke was billowing everywhere. But strangely enough, none of the smoke was entering the little cavern he was in. It was almost like some kind of invisible force field was pushing it all out. Slowly, he got up, and he strode over to entrance, where this anomaly was occurring. He reached his hand out, and almost instantly was shocked backwards. Something invisible had forced him back. It really was some kind of force field. He reached down, and pinched his leg. It hurt, which made Davis realize that by some divine miracle, he and Veemon had been spared.

At that exact moment, a blinding white light flooded the cavern behind him. Davis whirled around to see Veemon coming to, and starting to stand up. A voice, seemingly from inside of him called out.

"Come Davis," it seemed to call. "Time is short."

Veemon looked over at Davis. "Come on Davis…" He said, barely above a whisper. "I feel like we need to go this way."

"Yeah, me too," replied Davis. He took his Digimon Partner's hand, and strode into the light. There was a flash, and a sound like a thunderclap. Davis felt himself and Veemon almost lurch forward, and topple out onto another hard stone floor.

A voice boomed somewhere in the distance, "Your partner has arrived."

Takato stared. There on the ground, rubbing their heads in eerily similar ways that Takato and Guilmon had just done were Davis and Veemon. Takato stared as the two tried to stumble to their feet, then gathered himself and ran over to them.

"Davis! Veemon! You guys are ok!" He exclaimed, helping up Davis.

"I guess if you can call a lot of bad landings being ok." He rubbed his head, then glanced up. "Nice seeing you again Takato. For awhile there I wasn't sure I was going to find any of you guys again."

"Likewise," chuckled Takato nervously.

"Veemon, you smell stronger than last time I saw you." Guilmon said as he reached down and helped up the little blue Digimon.

"Thanks bud, but right now I'm a little dazed and confused as to exactly where we are." Veemon accepted his help, looking around.

"You are in the outer chamber of the Soul Labyrinth," boomed the voice of Spiritminotauromon. Davis and Veemon jumped a foot in the air, having been slightly dazed, they hadn't seen the huge Digimon. But now that they had, they were fully on their guard.

"Don't worry," Takato put his hands up in a relaxing position. "He's not going to hurt us. I think he's here to help."

"Come before me humans!" Bellowed the mega, "Time is running short." Davis, Takato, Guilmon, and Veemon all looked at each other and shrugged. Then they slowly walked towards the other end of the cavern, where Spiritminotauromon and the white fog archway were located. Spiritminotauromon turned around, and strode to the archway, waiting for the others to follow suit. Once they did so, he pointed down to two identically shaped grooves on the ground.

"In order to enter, you two humans must place the treasures you have received into those grooves," he rumbled smoothly. Davis and Takato looked at each other. They didn't know what he meant by 'the treasures you have received'. Slowly, the looked down at the floor, and saw two identical depressions in the ground, just large enough to fit …

"A modify card…" whispered Takato and Davis in unison. Takato plunged his hand into his pocket, pulling out a pile of modify cards. Davis however, stared. He didn't have any modify cards. He had been pitched headfirst into another world just a few days ago, and now he was in an entirely DIFFERENT world than that one. He hadn't had enough time to go to the store and pick up a pack of Digimon cards…

And then it hit him. He reached into his back pocket, and withdrew the Green Card that he had obtained in the cavern where he saw Magnamon. Takato looked over at it.

"Hey, I've got one of those too!" He exclaimed. He dug his hand in his back pocket as well and pulled it out. They both exchanged bewildered expressions, but before they could dwell on it, both cards began to glow. The one in Davis' hand a deep blue. The one in Takato's hand, bright orange. Without warning, both cards flew out of their hands, and into the depressions on the ground. There was a flash of light, and from those depressions two beams, one of blue and one of orange soared out into the fog.

"In order to gain the power to Digivolve to the Ultimate level, you will need to first take a journey inside of yourselves," Spiritminotauromon said. "You must attain the one thing that the ancients valued above all else: Wisdom. Once you have gained that, they will grant you the power you seek. On this quest, your Digimon will not be able to accompany you. I will remain with them here until you return."

Takato and Davis stared up at him as he spoke, then looked at each other.

"Well?" Takato murmured softly.

"Let's do this!" Shouted Davis. And with that, both strode along their respective paths through the archway.

'How is this possible?' Pondered Daar, pacing around on the ground just in front of the huge mesa his prey had suddenly just slipped away…in to? There was no way. Daar placed his hand on the stone wall in front of him, just where he saw his enemy slide through. It was solid, impassible. But that couldn't be. The energy blast he fired from his Corrupted Monolith should've blasted through, like it did to the ground nearby. Daar looked down. He was standing in half of a crater that went right up to the edge of the mesa. From there, no damage at all.

'Something is going on here. Some sort of trick. But there's no way through this. I'll just have to wait…Or do I?" Daar sprinted back to his steed. He grabbed a small pole jutting out of the side, and swung himself the whole way up onto his saddle.

'There's still the other kid. I'll take him out, then find the trespasser!' He swung the Monolith around, and charged ahead, back to the battle where Cyberdramon's attacks could be seen in the distance.

'Human…'

The smell was unmistakable. The smell of that first boy was still cluttering up the forest, but his superior scent was picking up others as well. He lifted his snout into the air and bared his long sharp teeth. He sniffed.

'Three others. Two of them Digimon. One of them is either a wolf or a fox type. The other is a rat. It reeks of the sewers out here.' He sniffed again. 'And the human…a female.' He lifted his claw to his left eye, and felt the long scar running across it. He recalled the day he got it. It had been a human female that time too.

One Eye turned his long neck around, and stared out into a gap in the trees. The stars, they were so beautiful…

He exhaled a long breath. The humans, they were so dangerous, so destructive…yet so fragile. In the Digital World, the small and the frail were the most peaceful of Digimon, the types that tried to stay away from the fighting. But the humans were different. He lifted his nose and sniffed again. All three smells intensified.

'They're fighting.' He thought.

The smell from the rat intensified most of all.

'He's winning.' One eye didn't know whether or not he could trust this human, but he knew he needed to check it out. He wheeled about and sprinted through the undergrowth, slipping around tree trunks with barely a sound. Within moments he was at the scene of the fight, peering silently through a patch of tall grass. He quickly identified the large, rat-type as Vermindramon. The second he recognized as Kyubimon. Well, if the crumpled mess at the base of a tall oak tree could be called a Digimon. And there was the human. She was crouched down next to the Kyubimon, shaking it.

"Kyubimon! Get up Kyubimon! Come on we have to fight!" The girl begged.

"Rika…" Kyubimon groaned. Slowly the Digimon lifted itself to its feet and bared its hackles at the slowly advancing Vermindramon. Suddenly, Kyubimon lunged forward.

"DRAGON WHEEL!" A burst of blue flame burst from the fox Digimon, and sprung forward in the shape of a dragon's mouth. The Vermindramon simply batted it away with a claw. Quickly, the girl named Rika whipped out a small device from her side. She slashed a card from her pocket through the side of it.

"Digi-Modify!" She yelled. "Speed activate!" Kyubimon received a burst of speed just in time to dive away from the fangs of Vermindramon. Kyubimon tried to circle around, but Vermindramon spun its body and brought its tail smashing across Kyubimon's face.

'They fight with no hope of victory…' thought One Eye, still watching silently. 'Such honor…such beauty…'

Kyubimon went smashing into another tree-trunk, and with a flash of yellow light reverted back to her rookie form.

Rika came sprinting over and picked up Renamon's head.

"Renamon, talk to me!" She shouted, tears welling in her eyes.

"Rika…run! You have to… get out of here!" Renamon whispered, her breath coming in gasps.

"I WON'T LEAVE YOU!" Rika was crying openly now.

'The bond between them is so strong…Even in death, they won't leave each other.' One Eye had had enough at this point. This human female clearly wasn't the same as her…

One Eye looked up. He saw the Vermindramon just feet away from its two enemies. He saw it coat its fangs with acid. He saw it rear up, and Rika and Renamon clutch each other in terror.

One Eye burst from the undergrowth. In a split second he barreled across the twenty feet between himself and the Vermindramon. He lowered his head and smashed into the rat's side. Vermindramon flew ten feet into the air and came crashing down at the base of a large moss covered rock. It quickly got up and hissed at One Eye, baring its fangs.

One Eye raised himself up to his full, fifteen-foot height. He snarled, baring his teeth menacingly. He clicked the enormous, razor sharp claws on both of his feet. Then, with a roar that pierced the night he charged, teeth bared and talons flashing.

Author's Notes: Yeah I know. This was really just a set up chapter. Ton's of action to come in chapter 7! Stay tuned!


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